Picking up the Pieces
by miyulekurkantsuto
Summary: Tsuna and his guardians at school. Couple of fights, curse words, name callings, biting to death, perfectly normal, right? But for some reason, Tsuna's Hyper Intuition won't pipe down, and he just felt as though something were to happen. This was proved right. That very day, he vanished. Off the face of Earth. With only... FULL SUMMARY INSIDE!
1. Prologue

Full Summary: Tsuna and his guardians at school. Couple of fights, curse words, name callings, biting to death, perfectly normal, right? But for some reason, Tsuna's Hyper Intuition won't pipe down, and he just felt as though something were to happen. This was proved right. That very day, he vanished. Off the face of Earth. With only a small note left behind saying: "You will never see your precious Vongola Decimo again." After months of searching, Tsuna's found. But he's different, so, so different. What happened... and what did the kidnappers want...?

Warnings: Um, violence, swearing, tragedy, kinda depressing stuff because I'm (Rachel) a depressing person? And I suck at anything thats not really tragedy/angst?

This is also our very first fanfiction (written together at least XP) so except a lot of stupid mistakes and weird stuff bad writing (hey we're like kids. Don't expect like professional stuff pls)

Just a note this is also HORROR so if your like under 13 or something or hate violence (ok not saying anything against people under 13 you can still read it if you want just saying its kinda bloody ish) please beware...

PLEASE NO FLAMES

Chapter 1: Prologue

 **Rachel: Hi**

 **Sabrina: IDK what to say to Tsuna. I mean he's the next mafia boss and all.**

 **Tsuna: I'm not gonna be the mafia boss!**

 **Rachel: Yes you are and we can make u cuz we are the author(s).**

 **Sabrina: OUR ORDERS ARE ABSOLUTE**

 **Rachel: THE ONLY ONE THAT CAN DEFY US IS US**

 **Sabrina: AND WE WILL MAKE IT SO TSUNA YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN BEAT YOU** **(Kuroko no Basket, anyone?)**

 **Rachel: SO Tsuna. Say the disclaimer.**

 **Tsuna: Rachel and Sabrina doesn't own KTR or any of us.**

 **Rachel/Sabrina: There! Told u! the only one that can defy us is us!**

 **Tsuna: HHHIIIIEEEE?! Wait, then can u make Reborn follow u?**

 **Rachel: …. Maybe….yes…? no….? (Passive response)**

 **Sabrina:...Shut up Tsuna nobody asked you (aggressive response)**

 **Reborn: *pulls out leon gun* What were you saying?**

 **Rachel/Sabrina: HHHHIIIIIIEEEEEE NOTHING!**

 **Sabrina:...Let's just start**

 **Rachel: Y-yeah! ON WITH THE STORY!**

* * *

 _-It's funny how fast things can change, isn't it? One moment, you could be laughing along with all your friends, and the next, well… in the next moment, you could lose everything.-_

* * *

 _It was burning. It was burning him, alive. Where was he? Where… Where did everyone go?_

 _There was nothing there, nothing but the fire that slowly devoured him. And the numbing feel afterwards. It started from just the tips of his fingers, and it spread. It set out the fire, the pain, the empty thoughts, the terrifying loneliness, and slowly, slowly, consumed him. What was better? The fire of pain, or the feeling of being senseless, of forgetting everything?_

 _Everyone... everyone abandoned him, didn't they? Thats what_ they _said. The ones that brought the fire._

"...na…!"

 _Why…? Why would they leave him alone?_

"...una!"

 _And the fire slowly returned, the pain once again spreading._

"...Tsu...a…!"

 _What hurts more, physical pain, or mental pain?_

"Dame-tsuna!"

Tsuna jerked awake, just as a Leon Hammer nearly smashed into his head. Gasping, he rolled over, tumbling off his bed.

"HIIIEEEE! REBORN?!" the 14 year old shrieked.

Reborn scoffed as Leon turned back into a chameleon and scurried up to the infant's fedora. "You wouldn't wake up. Hurry up, Dame-Tsuna. Or else you're going to be late for school."

A pair of chocolate brown landed on the clock next to his bed.

7:49 AM

"HHHIIIIIIIEEEEEEE! I'M GONNA BE LATE FOR SCHOOL!"

* * *

"Ohayo, Tenth!" a silver haired teen called, bowing respectfully to the brunette.

The tall, black-haired teen beside him grinned, waving. "Yo! Tsuna!"

"Ohayo, Tsuna-kun," the shy red head said, giving him a small smile.

"O-Ohayo, Gokudera-kun, Yamamoto, Enma-kun!" Tsuna replied, weakly smiling, "Gomen, I woke up late again!"

"Are you ok, Tsuna-kun?" Enma asked, worried about his friend, who was paler than normal.

He smiled, "Yeah! I just didn't sleep very well last night..."

"Dame-Tsuna, if you don't want to get to school late, hurry up and go!" Reborn said, hopping up and landing on said person's fluffy hair.

The blood drained from Tsuna's face, as he remembered the fate of all who arrived at school late…

"Hibari-san!" he cried, and took off, his friends right behind him.

Halfway, he paused, panting hard, to take a small break.

"Tch. If you can't make a simple run to school, you need more tor-training, Dame-Tsuna." Reborn said.

"Is it just me, or did Reborn just say 'torture'?" Tsuna muttered to Enma.

"... I think he just did..." the other replied.

"EXTREME!" a loud voice interrupted, racing past them, a cloud of dust flying behind. The white haired senpai then stopped abruptly, and called out, "OH! SAWADA! HOW IS YOUR EXTREME MORNING? COME JOIN THE BOXING CLUB TO THE EXTREME!"

"Mou, Onii-chan!" his sister called out, chasing after him. "Don't just run off like that! You forgot your bento again! Oh! Ohayo, Tsuna-san, Enma-san."

"Ohayo, Onii-san, Kyoko-chan. Gomen, I'm going to decline the offer to the boxing club again." Tsuna replied, smiling, while the Enma waved.

"KYOKO'S EXTREME BENTOS ARE THE BEST TO THE EXTREME!" Ryohei exclaimed.

"OI! Turf-Top!" Gokudera called out, a deep frown marring his face. "Show some respect for Tenth!"

'WHAT'S THAT, OCTOPUS HEAD? WHO ARE YOU CALLING TURF-TOP?" Ryohei shouted back.

"OBVIOUSLY YOU, TURF-TOP! YOU NEED TO SHOW SOME RESPECT FOR TENTH!" Gokudera retorted.

"Maa maa~! Let's just all calm down, neh, Tsuna?" Yamamoto replied cheerfully, stepping in between to two and swinging his arm around Tsuna's shoulders.

"DON'T BE SO FRIENDLY WITH TENTH, BASEBALL-FREAK!" the storm guardian yelled, fuming.

"SAWADA JOIN THE EXTREME BOXING CLUB!"

"Onii-chan! Your bento!"

"SHOW SOME RESPECT FOR JUUDAIME!"

BOOM. There went the dynamites.

"EXTREME FIST FIGHT!

PUNCH. And, the fist fight started.

"E-eh? M-Minna! C-calm down! Gokudera-kun! Put away your dynamite! Onii-san! Reborn, help me! Wait, e-eh? Reborn? Where did he go?!"

"MY DEEPEST APOLOGIES, TENTH! I AM A FAILURE AS YOUR RIGHT-HAND MAN! I SHALL NOW COMMIT SEPPUKU!"

"EXTREME!"

"E-EH?! GOKUDERA-KUN! STOP THAT! W-WAIT!"

"Maa maa, let's just all calm down now, neh?"

"Herbivores. You are late to class. For arriving late, I shall bite you all to death."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"HHHIIIIIIIEEEEEEE?!"

Yup. A normal day.

* * *

Nezu-sensei, the _elite_ , was lecturing on and on. "And we use the formula _y=mx+b_. So, if we plug it in with the actual numbers, it makes it _8=3(5)+b_ , since _y=8, m=3,_ and _x=5_. Next, to solve this equation-"

The door slammed open, revealing a fuming Gokudera, grinning Yamamoto, Enma hiding slightly behind the others, and a weary looking Dame-Tsuna.

"Oh? Well, if it isn't Dame-Tsuna and Loser-Enma, late again, as usual." Nezu said aloud, only insulting the "Dame-Duo."

"Tch! Are you insulting the Tenth?!" Gokudera growled, a dynamite appearing in his hand from who knows where.

"Maa maa, let's just all calm down, neh?" Yamamoto grinned.

"KYAAAA~! YAMAMOTO-SAMA, GOKUDERA-SAMA~!" the crazy fangirls squealed.

"Shut up!" the silver haired teen yelled, before turning to Tsuna. "Tenth, can I blow them up?"

He sighed. "Gokudera-kun, please put away your dynamite. And Sensei, I'm really sorry. We were held up by Hibari-san."

The class snickered.

"Hmph. Whatever. Get to your seats." Nezu said. "Anyway, where was I? Ah! Now, to solve this equation, you first multiply the _3_ and _5_ , or the _m_ and the _x_. This gives you _15_. The equation now is _8=15+b_. To get the _b_ by itself, you move the _15_ to the other side, changing the signs as well, which gives you _8-15=b_. And this gives you _b=-7_. Now if you were to change the variables to something such as _¼,_ the equation would now be…" **(A/N: Rachel are you sure you're doing your math right? -Sabrina. Shut up. Of course I am. -Rachel)**

Tsuna suppressed the urge to groan. After getting "bitten to death" by Hibari, who wouldn't? Not to mention the terrible headache that had been bothering him since… when he woke up from that horrid dream.

' _...huh…? What was the nightmare about again…?'_

"Gokudera! What is the answer?" Gokudera, who had been glaring at everyone, swiftly turned and glanced at Tsuna, or even in the general direction of his precious Tenth, answered the question without even looking at Nezu.

" _3=¼(-4)+b_ , so _b=4_." Several fangirl screams ensued (again), causing Tsuna's headache to double.

"Tch. I'm sure that was just pure luck, so pay attention next time, Gokudera. How about you, Yamamoto? Answer this question: _-4=x+b._ "

"Eh…" he grinned stupidly, "I dunno, I'll guess... _b=...(-5)_...?"

Nezu narrowed his eyes as he walked forward towards Yamamoto's desk and snatched from his pile of papers the baseball schedule that he had set aside earlier. "Again, pure luck; I'll be confiscating this, Yamamoto, to make sure you focus."

Yamamoto laughed it off, scratching the back of his head as the fangirls squealed.

Everyone in class now knew that Nezu was intending to bully the four late students, so it was absolutely no surprise when he said-

"Now, _Dame-_ Tsuna, answer this question; it should be easy for you with your absolutely _amazing_ knowledge. What is the answer to the equation 5=9(-7)+b."

Tsuna sighed, too fed up by his headache to care; he was used to this treatment anyways.

"...um...67..?"

" _Wrong._ It's 68, Dame-Tsuna. You get _another_ 0 for the day." Nezu announced, a small smirk visible on his face.

Tsuna ignored the laughs and hushed whispers of his fellow classmates as he rubbed his temples. This wasn't helping with his headache.

Gokudera was once again sitting with his legs propped up on the table, glaring at everyone, while Yamamoto dozed off, hiding behind his notebook.

"And now, to pass back the tests we took last week." Nezu announced, grabbing a stack of papers on his desk. "Everyone did very well on this test. But you see this class average is still a 81%. Now I'm sure many of us are wondering how the percentage is a _mere_ 81%, when this class is taught by none other than me, an _elite_. Well, lets just say that _theoretically,_ some particular _dame_ students, that was in a class taught by an _elite_ , and failed their test, _miserably_ , and brought the _entire. Class. Average. Down._ **(A/N: story of my life-Sabrina. Shut up Sabrina, this isn't your life story. -Rachel)** "

The entire class howled with laughter as the teacher held up the test of the _theoretical_ person's test, with a huge 23 written on the top in bright, blood red ink.

"So, Dame-Tsuna, why don't you come up and get your test?" Nezu smirked.

By now, it felt as though someone was pounding the poor teen's head with a Leon hammer, and he could no longer tolerate the bullying from his classmates and teacher. He stood, stormed up, ripping the paper out of the teacher's hand, and all but kicked down the door. Tsuna left, and fled the classroom.

' _I just need some fresh air.'_ he convinced himself, trudging down the hall; he was too tired to care about the consequences of what he had just done

Meanwhile, the class sat, completely frozen and shocked at the small teen's actions. Never before had he done anything like it.

As the class started buzzing with noise, gossiping about the "dame" student, Enma quickly slipped out of the classroom. Gokudera, on the other hand, stood up, kicking down his table, and ran out after Tsuna, carrying both their school bags and growling a string of curse words under his breath. Yamamoto had woken up as well, his face now serious, no trace of his usual silly grin.

"Sensei! I'm going to the bathroom!" he called, as he too followed the half-Italian out the room. **(A/N Much dramatic flair-Sabrina. Really? -Rachel)**

The entire class was stunned to silence.

* * *

Tsuna groaned, climbing up the stairs to the roof. He made his way up, and carefully pushed the door open, checking to see if the prefect was there. None. Good. Tsuna made his way over to the fence, and sat down, resting his throbbing head. Now that he'd calmed down a bit, he began to rethink what he'd just done. He couldn't care less what his teacher and classmates thought (except Kyoko-chan), but what would his mom think when she would undoubtedly receive a complaint from Nezu?

Suddenly, his head gave off a painful throb and Tuna unconsciously stood up, both hands clutching his painfully pounding head.

' _...run...'_

What...where was this coming from? Why was this happening?

' _..run….before….they...come…..ru….un…..'_

Suddenly, Tsuna felt something that he had never felt before; it was fear, but not the type that he got when forced to climb a mountain or forced to fight against Hibari. It was the type of fear that started from his heart and numbed him all over, the kind that seemed to never stop, the kind that seemed impossible to stop. It was a cold, unstoppable terror beyond fear.

Someone was there.

Someone, no, something… something was there. His heartbeat sped up, and he knew that he wasn't alone. There was something there.

His head throbbed painfully once more.

* * *

"TENTH!" Gokudera called, running up the stairs.

"Maa maa, Tsuna's probably just up on the roof!" Yamamoto said soothingly, following right behind the other.

"B-but, why did Tsuna-san suddenly run out of the classroom?" Enma asked worriedly, scrambling up the stairs, trying hard not to trip and keep up; for some reason, he couldn't shake off the feeling that something very, very bad was about to happen.

"Tch. That's what I'm worried about. Tenth was looking kinda pale this morning too, wasn't he? Damn it! How could I not tell something was bothering him? I'm a failure as his right-hand man!" Gokudera growled. He sped up, leaving the other two behind, and practically kicked down the door, screaming, "TENTH!"

Then he froze.

"...Tenth…?"

Tsuna was it front of him, clutching his head as if in pain, his eyes wide with… fear…?

"Tenth?! Are you ok?!" Gokudera called, taking a step forward. He reached out, concern clear on his face, only to be stopped by what he saw.

Tsuna turned around, completely facing Gokudera. For a moment, it seemed as it the right eye had turned gold, as it was in HDWM.

"G-Gokudera-k-kun…" he muttered, before his eyes slowly closed, and he fell backwards, toppling off the building.

"TENTH!"

Yamamoto and Enma burst out of the doorway, both with bewildered expressions on their faces.

"Gokudera-kun! What happened? W-Where's Tsuna-san?" Enma asked. The storm guardian ignored him, and began running towards the other end, screaming Tsuna's name with a look of wild panic on his face. .

"What happened?" Yamamoto asked, face now lacking his usual grin for the second time that day.

Gokudera reached the end and leaned over. Silence engulfed the three. "T-tenth… fell off…."

"Wh-what?!" Enma cried, rushing over. "Wh-what happened to him?!"

The former stepped back, and promptly fell on to his knees, eyes still wide as though in shock.

"...Tenth… Tenth's not there…"

The ground below where Tsuna should have fallen was empty, and so was the rest of the school; no trace of the small teen could be seen anywhere. As if no one had fallen, as if no one had even been there.

Tsuna was gone.

* * *

 **Rachel: HEY* dodges a flying knife* I'M SORRY *dodges a bullet* WAS THAT TOO BAD *screams* I'M SORRY *dodges bunch of rotten tomatoes* SABRINA HELP ME HERE!**

 **Sabrina: *dodges a red scissor* well i mean better than a knife**

 **Tsuna: …**

 **Rachel: ...Oh shit. Cuz he disappeared right….**

 **Sabrina: HURRY CHANGE THE STORY MAKE HIM COME BACK!**

 **Gokudera: TENTTTHHHHH?! WHAT DID YOU FUCKERS DO TO TENTH?!**

 **Sabrina: sorry but he failed to pay his taxes so we can't keep him in the story for a few chapters until he pays off his debt**

 **Rachel: SABRINA! Don't make such lame excuses!**

 **Sabrina: what else am i supposed to say that *****spoiler****** spoiler******death**death********spoiler****Tsuna's funeral. I'M JOKING I SWEAR THAT WAS A JOKE probably**

 **Rachel: You tell the truth and tell Gokudera-kun that Tsuna-san got kidnapped.**

 **Gokudera:...**

 **Sabrina:...**

 **Rachel: OH SHIT I JUST GAVE THE ACTUAL SPOILER SHIT**

 **Sabrina:oh well at least our readers can look forward to something now.**

 **Gokudera: TTTEEEEENNNNNNTTTTHHHH!**

 **To be continued… *runs from dynamite***

 **Ok, sincerely apologize if we're screwing with your sanity or anything. But please do look forward to the next chapter! (it contains high amounts of angst, panic, and tension. except if you read the summary you'll know he won't be lost for long)If you want to know why there is a "Sabrina" and a "Rachel" go read our profile! After you review our story of course. Please.**

 **Ok. Yeah, dunno if hyper intuition can actually do that but ITS OUR STORY DEAL WITH IT lol**

 **Ciao~**

 **~Rachel and Sabrina**


	2. Missing

**Chapter 1: Missing**

 **Rachel: AY ITS US! WE'RE BACK!**

 **Sabrina:...I'm kinda at lost to what to** **say…**

 **Rachel: Well to start off… LETS THANK OUR ONE AND ONLY REVIEWER!**

 **Sabrina: For the second time. And since I didn't personally say it the first time OTL THANK YOU SO MUCH YOU TOTALLY MADE MY DAY**

 **Rachel: And that person is…** _ **UpDownAndAllAround**_

 **Sabrina: SAY THANK YOU AS WELL TSUNA**

 **Tsuna:...**

 **Rachel: OH CRAP I FORGOT HE'S STILL MISSING! Wait… then we don't have anyone to say the disclaimer…. SABRINA SAY THE DISCLAIMER!**

 **Sabrina: sadly i don't own Hibari**

 **Rachel: …. Sabrina… I… Um… You… The….… you know what. Nevermind. LETS JUST GO ON WITH THE STORY**

 **Sabrina: What. I could transfer him into two chapters of SnK to kill titans**

 **Rachel: Now, our dear viewers, please ignore this stupid thing above. LETS GO ON WITH THE STORY (oh the disclaimer includes all of KTR not just Hibari-san and his adorable Hibirds btw)**

* * *

 _Last time:_

 _After waking up from a terrible nightmare, Tsuna leaves for school with his guardians and Enma. Halfway through class, he could no longer stand his terrible headache, and fled the classroom. His friends, worried for him, chased after him, only to witness him fall of the roof… and vanish…_

* * *

"TEEENNNTTTHHH!" Gokudera cried, burying his face in his hands. Beside him, Enma was still standing, eyes wide with shock. And for once, Yamamoto had no words of comfort.

The three were embraced by silence.

And the silence had never been so loud.

"Reborn!" Gokudera suddenly exclaimed. "Let's find Reborn! He'll… he'll know where to find Tenth!"

Yamamoto nodded, and hastily turned around, heading out the door. Gokudera stood up as well, headed towards the stairs, before turning and yelling, "Kozato! _Hurry up_!"

Enma nodded nervously, and scrambled down the stairs after the two guardians.

Had they looked closer, they would have realized their boss was closer than they thought.

And if they paid more attention, they would have noticed the small flash of mist flames, hiding several from view.

* * *

"Reborn!" the silverette called, banging on Tsuna's door. "REBORN!"

The door swung open.

"Ah! Tsu-kun's friend!" Nana smiled, opening the door wider. "Come on in! Everybody's already here!"

Confused, the three quickly followed her in. To be greeted by the sight of Reborn and the other guardians.

"Y-YOU! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU ALL DOING HERE?!" Gokudera spluttered, pointing at the others.

"MASTER PAO PAO CALLED US HERE, TO THE EXTREME!" Ryohei yelled standing up. Surprisingly, everyone was there. Lambo and I-Pin were sleeping peacefully on the couch, Hibari stood in the furthest corner, arms crossed, glaring at everyone, and Chrome sat, nervously fidgeting.

"Gokudera. Yamamoto. Enma." Reborn cut in sharply. "Where is Tsuna?"

The three froze.

"R-Reborn-san… Th-that's why w-we came to y-you…" Enma muttered, shying away. "H-he ran out of class, a-and when we f-followed him o-on to the roof, he f-fell off… a-and… a-and…"

"And what?!" the arcobaleno asked calmly, though he looked all but ready to shoot the gloomy teen.

"H-he.. vanished…"

Reborn's face darkened a bit before looking away with a frown on his face. "Tch…I sensed some mist flames earlier, but for him to have _vanished_..."

"WAIT REBORN YOU KNEW THAT SOMETHING WOULD HAPPEN AND YOU DO NOTH-"

"Be quiet, Gokudera." Though Reborn's voice was many levels softer than Gokudera's and he was still looking down at his crossed arms, it also was many levels more demanding and, also, completely terrifying.

"I didn't know that he would vanish, but I did predict that something would happen to that idiot. It would be obvious that he should be on higher alert, seeing that he's officially becoming the Vongola Decimo in a few days, but no. I should have expected this and gone to the school myself. And stop looking so angry at yourself, Gokudera. There's barely anything you can do now. "

"There aren't many possibilities if we do think about it," Yamamoto said from next to Ryohei,where he'd already sat down. Gokudera remained standing.

"Why you… Tenth could have been kidnapped, shot, and YOU ALL ARE JUST SITTING HERE?!" Gokudera fumed, losing his temper once again.

"Hayato! _Shut. Up_. Shouldn't you be focusing on where Tsuna went right now?" Reborn cut in, glaring at him. "And its not like you're the only person worried here!"

The small group quieted, before finally, the storm guardian sat down. They continued.

"The first option is one that has already happened before with Byakuran-"

"The ten year bazooka"

"There wasn't any bazooka, _anywhere._ And unless you're suggesting that Tenth somehow _did_ get hit by it, where did the fucking thing come from in the first place?" Gokudera scowled.

"B-but, Reborn-san said earlier, th-there were mist flames around, so Bossu could have been a-attacked…" Chrome said, quietly.

And in one moment, everyone seemed to explode.

Gokudera slammed his fist on the table, "IF THAT'S REALLY A POSSIBILITY, THEN WHAT ARE WE DOING, JUST SITTING AROUND?!"

At the same moment, Ryohei jumped up yelling, "THEN WE SHOULD GO FIND SAWADA TO THE EXTREME!"

He immediately dashed out of the room, leaving the small group.

"Tch. That idiot." Reborn growled. "No matter. We'll split up and look for Dame-Tsuna, got it? Inform the others _as soon as possible_ if anyone finds any clues. _Understand_?"

The remaining guardians nodded, showing that they understood, and quickly left the room.

* * *

 _It was dark, so, so dark. Where… where did everyone go…? He tried moving towards the comforts of the corner, but shackles on his wrists and ankles restrained him from moving any further. So he stayed there, on his knees, arms keeping his limp body from falling to the ground. He was trembling slightly from the cold, feeling too exposed in the center of the large room._

 _The large room filled with the scent of blood and death._

* * *

It had been two days since Sawada Tsunayoshi disappeared. There were several whispered rumors at school, but nobody was particularly worried about the topic of their rumors except for Kyoko, who had been bluntly denied information from her brother. Nana had been told by Reborn that Tsuna had gone on a surprise class trip, so he hadn't had a chance to say goodbye.

"That's fine, as long as Tsu-kun has fun with his friends!" she said, "Ara, the house is going to be rather quiet now, isn't it?"

Ignorance is truly a bliss. But ignorance is also danger.

* * *

On the third day, the guardians where near panic.

Gokudera had searched through the entire town of Namimori several times, and was just about ready to move on to the rest of Japan. He was frantic, and his temper was as bad as ever. The silverette scowled and glared at anyone, and everyone, his hostile presence causing even the rabid fangirls to steer clear of his paths.

Yamamoto continued with his baseball practices, but by now, even his so called "friends" could tell that his smile was no longer genuine. During classes, when he usually would have been sleeping peacefully, he sat, with a stoned expression, sitting stiffly in his seat. Yamamoto didn't laugh and crack jokes at practices, and left as soon as practices were over.

Ryohei practiced harder in his boxing than ever, pouring all his stress and frustrations into his punches. It was quite obvious he wasn't in the best of moods anymore, as he wasn't as hyped up as usual. He simply continued training, hard.

Hibari seemed the least concerned, however, one could still tell he was in a fouler mood than normal. He was stricter, and more aggressive in his everyday rounds around the school. In those three days, more than half the school had already been bitten to death.

And it was noted that as soon as there was a break, these people would seem to immediately vanish, meeting up on the roof top.

Enma and his famiglia had simply disappeared from the school.

* * *

It was now the fourth day. Nana was, as usual, in the kitchen, cooking.

But what was unusual was that there was no shrieking from Tsuna from getting woken up by Reborn.

There were no guardians arguing in the house.

And the two children that were usually very loud were for once quiet, Lambo pouting in Tsuna's room.

"Ah! Reborn-san! Could you go out and get the mail for me today~?" Nana asked, turning to face the arcobaleno.

"Hai, Mama." Reborn replied. He set down his coffee and jumped down from the chair, already heading out the door.

Nana smiled gratefully, before turning back to her cooking. "Arigato, Reborn-san."

The hitman jumped on to the mailbox, before reaching down to the opening.

' _Tsuna's been gone for too long.'_ he thought to himself. ' _If this goes on, I'll have to contact Nono.'_

And just as he was about to close the mailbox, a single, innocent looking envelope fell out, slowly drifting towards the ground. An emblem with a single crow standing on four skulls carved into the small sticker keeping the envelope closed.

The Morte Famiglia.

And on the back, it was labeled: _To the Hitman Reborn, and Guardians of the Vongola X._

Reborn's blood ran cold.

As swiftly as he could, he entered the house, small envelope clutched tightly in his fist. The paper was rough, and he could feel a small object inside from his trembling hand.

"Here's the mail, Mama." Reborn called. He left the bunch on the table, and left for Tsuna's room as Nana called out her thanks.

As he entered, Lambo nearly immediately pounced on to him.

"Did you find Tsuna-ni?!" he yelled.

" _Get off!"_ Reborn snarled. " _I don't have time for your nonsense right now_!"

The small child gulped, before obediently, or out of pure fear, backed away. He ran out of the room, nearly screaming, and I-Pin quickly followed.

Within almost seconds of each of their notifications, all of the guardians had gathered in front of Tsuna's house, out of breath from rushing over. God, even _Hibari_ came, with Chrome right behind. Yamamoto and Ryohei had left in the middle of their practice, and Gokudera had basically ran over from the other side of town. They barely shouted a thank you when the door was opened before rushing to Tsuna's room.

When the five entered the room, they saw Reborn was pacing, an extremely worried and frustrated expression on his face. Seeing the normally calm arcobaleno stressing so much, nobody knew whether to watch patiently from the side or speak up.

Gokudera chose the latter; however, before he could even open his mouth, the letter Reborn had been holding was roughly thrown into his hands. He only received one word of instruction along with a gesture: "Open it."

The storm guardian stared questioningly at the hitman, before hesitantly asking the question everyone was wondering, "What is it…?"

"What have we been doing these past few days? _Just open the goddamn thing_!" Reborn growled.

Gokudera quickly ripped it open.

And promptly froze up.

"S-Storm-san…?" Chrome whispered. She and the others quickly gathered around, wondering what was inside.

In Gokudera's hand was a single ring.

A Vongola Sky Ring covered in blood.

Along with a small picture.

A picture of a bloody and beaten brunette sagging limply on his knees, only held up by the chains on his wrists. On the other side of the photo was scrawled in rough handwriting: ' _We have Sawada Tsunayoshi. This is our revenge. You will never see your precious Vongola Decimo again_.'

The contents fell to the floor.

And as the ring rolled over to a stop, panic broke out.

Again.

* * *

 _The small boy whimpered slightly in fear as they slowly came closer._

 _"Hold him down..." one hissed. The two behind him slinked forward. Each grabbed one of his arms and shoulder, holding him firmly down, even as he squirmed and whimpered in fear._

 _The first man smirked. "Vongola X... isn't it...?"_

 _And very, very slowly, he pushed the tip of the small dagger on his shoulder, and dragged it down his back. Almost as if painting on a canvas, he carved in to the brunette's back._

 _"... Vongola... X..."_

* * *

 **...to be continued…**

* * *

 **Rachel: *gets hit in face by a rotten tomato* IM SORRY**

 **Sabrina: THIS IS SO STRESSFUL WHY DOES THIS HAVE TO HAPPEN TO YOU TSUNA**

 **Rachel: IM TERRIBLY SORRY ABOUT THIS!**

 **Yamamoto: *sword pointed at us* What did you do to Tsuna? *smiles cheerfully/deadly***

 **Rachel/Sabrina: HHHHIIIIIIEEEEE GOMENASAI GOMENASAI !**

 **Sabrina: well i mean at least it's not Hibari**

 **Anyway, Please look forward to the next chapter and DONT FORGET TO REVIEW!**

 **~Rachel and Sabrina**


	3. Time Lost Before Found

**Chapter 2: Time Lost Before Found**

 **Rachel: HOW WHY NO KAZUKO IM SORRY FOR FAILING YOU! I SHALL NOW GO FIND A CLIFF TO JUMP OFF OF! I have decided that I'm gonna die with Kazuko. (btw Kazuko is the name of Rachel's cello)**

 **Sabrina: Isn't that what you said last time during summer orchestra for whatever mysterious reason that I already forgot? (She screwed her audition)**

 **Rachel: No… I HAVE DISGRACED KAZUKO!**

 **Sabrina: *pushes you away* SAY THE DISCLAIMER HIBIRD.**

 **Hibird:** _ **Midori tanabiku namimori no, dai naku shou naku nami ga ii, itsumo kawaranu sukoyaka kenage, aa…. tomo ni utaou namimori chuu~**_

 **Rachel:...**

 **Sabrina:...**

 **Hibari: For trying to make my bird say the disclaimer and disturbing the peace of Namimori, I shall bite you to death!**

 **Rachel: HHHIIIIEEE GOMENASAI! At least kill me with my Kazuko- GOMENASAI WE DON'T OWN YOU GUYS OUR BAD SORRY SORRY SORRY**

 **Sabrina: Apology accepted ^.^**

 **Hibari: *tonfas come out…* ***blood****screams***screams****biting to death*****

* * *

 **Replies to Reviews~**

 **tofldh:** Rachel-HAHA DON'T WORRY EVEN THROUGH ALL OF THIS THERE SHALL BE A HAPPY ENDING XDXD Just read the chapter and hope you enjoy it~

Sabrina-AND THANKS FOR REVIEWING YOU MADE MY DAY

 **Sir Butt:** Sabrina-Lol then you should especially thank Rachel, since she's the one who writes all the depressing stuff. I handle just pieces of everything else.

Rachel- T_T woooowww Sabrina…. ANYWAY THANKS SO MUCH FOR REVIEWINNNNNGGGGGG~ Yeah in case you didn't read the WARNINGS in the Prologue, it says I can't write humor… hahaha (laughs nervously)

 **Lacie (Guest):** Sabrina- of course not, silly. Read the summary :) There's definitely a *cough* happy *cough* ending *cough* being *cough* insinuated here *cough* *laughs nervously*

Rachel-Please excuse Sabrina's stupidity. In summary, YES DON'T WORRY HE'LL BE FINE kinda maybe ish AND THX FOR REVIEWING XDXD

khr female (Guest): Rachel and Sabrina: SORRY WE SUCK AT SPANISH SO WE USED GOOGLE TRANSLATE FOR YOU REVIEW BUT THANKS SO MUCH ANYWAY~! Hope you enjoy this chapter too :)

QuirkyKit: Rachel: Hahaha thx~ I hope you enjoy this chapter too

Sabrina: THANKS FOR REVIEWING THOUGH

 **A/N**

 **AY EVERYONE WE WOULD LIKE TO SAY THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO REALIZED THAT THERE ARE TWO OF US HERE SO HERE'S A COOKIE IF YOU REALIZED IT :)**

 **Now let's get on with the story...**

* * *

 _Last time:_

 _Reborn held a meeting with all the guardians and the Shimon Famiglia, in which they discussed the disappearance of Tsuna. After this, they all searched far and wide, for four days, before Reborn received a letter, along with a photo and a bloody sky ring… of Sawada Tsunayoshi…_

* * *

A day had passed since the letter arrived at the Sawada household.

And a day had passed since the guardians of Sawada Tsunayoshi had left Namimori.

Reborn had immediately notified Nono, asking him to assist them in their search. Nono had quickly agreed, worry evident in his voice over the phone. And it wasn't just because without Tsunayoshi, there would be no successor of Vongola; Timoteo genuinely cared for the small teen. The one plead that Reborn had, was to not tell Iemitsu. They knew that as incomplete of a father he was, he was bound to go on a rampage, demanding for his son back. Not to mention it would be nearly impossible for him to continue working in the CEDEF with him panicking like that. After Reborn cleared this, he and the Vongola family had quickly joined the Shimon Famiglia, who had gone to Italy to continue searching. They spent days wandering back and forth in Italy. Worry was clouding everyone's thoughts, and it wasn't long before someone spoke up.

"Baby." Hibari stated, much to everyone's surprise, "Explain."

"Explain what." Reborn replied.

"Why we are dawdling around in these crowds, and not spending time doing what we were meant to be doing!" he hissed. Everyone would have quickly agreed, if they had not been in shock that the "carnivore" was the first to speak up.

"I-I agree with Hibari-san!" Enma declared. "W-we should be spending more time looking for T-Tsuna-kun! A-Although it m-may be as you s-said, that it might be better to w-wait, I-I don't think T-Tsuna-kun can afford to wait! R-Remember wh-what they sent!? Th-the photo!"

Instantly, everyone spoke up, voicing their own opinions.

"C'mon kid! Tsuna needs us right now!" Yamamoto called out.

"For once, I agree with the baseball-idiot! We have to save the Tenth!"

"RESCUE SAWADA TO THE EXTREME!"

"B-bossu…"

"They will be purified."

"I agree.. in the end…"

"LAMBO-SAN WANT TSUNA-NNNIIII!"

"I will bite them to death"

"GOOD! NOW WE NE-"

"Everyone. Be quiet." Reborn's sharp voice cut in like a whip, instantly drawing in attention from everyone and causing them to abruptly stop moving.

The odd group of guardians had wandered into a deserted part of town, where watchful eyes seemed to come in from all sides.

Before any of them could even blink, Reborn had taken his Leon gun and fired in the direction of the closest alleyway to the right. Everyone turned, just in time to see the end of a black cloak turn the corner, and whisk out of sight. By the time the group had reached that corner, nothing was left but an insignia painted on the wall in ominously black ink.

The insignia of the Morte Famiglia.

* * *

 _He was drenched in the crimson blood. Cuts after cuts decorated his skin, the man dragging the cold blade across his pale skin like a paint brush flowing on the rough canvas._

 _Was that what he was, by now? A piece of unneeded material used for entertainment? For pleasure?_

 _If that was true, then what made those cuts and colorful bruises?_

 _Yes. The cuts were the fine strokes of a skilled artist, the bruises the color for the dull background. The red blood, so dark it was nearly black, was the main focus. The one thing that brought out the point of the piece of work._

 _Wasn't a canvas supposed to be strong? Made of strong material to withstand the smears of paint from the thin hairs on a paintbrush that could do oh so much damage? To stand out, and kept to the best condition before being sold to an eager customer?_

 _Was he strong? Could he withstand this any longer?_

* * *

Everything was cushioned and a warm color, and a brightly lit fire cast a warm glow onto the occupants. However, the aura in the room was icy cold and seemed to be shrinking the fire as the tenseful seconds ticked by. Instead of staying in the hotel that all of them had picked together, they were stuck within an underground guest room facility of the Vongola's Italian branch in Sicily.

They were asked many touchy questions.

After they had found out about the Morte family tailing them, Reborn had immediately canceled the rest of the plan for their day, which wasn't much anyways. They spent the rest of the day hiding out, planning what to do next.

"Reborn-san, if there tailing us, why don't we just go kidnap one of those fuckers and get him to tell us where Tenth is?" Gokudera suggested. An almost evil glint had appeared in Hibari's eyes when the storm guardian suggested "getting him to tell us," which the prefect had interpreted as something closer to "torture and bite to death until the herbivore breaks."

"Agreed." Yamamoto deadpanned. "If he's following us, he'll definitely know where Tsuna is."

"That's not the problem," Reborn suddenly said. "It's not as easy as it seems. From the looks of it, he's probably been tailing us for a while, but not a single one of us, not even me noticed."

The group quieted once again. To be able to escape the notice of the _world's greatest hitman_ was no small feat.

And that's what made it so terrifying.

* * *

 **Vongola Mansion: Vongola Nono**

"Coyote, any news on Tsunayoshi yet?" Timoteo asked, pacing back and forth in his office.

Vongola Nono's right hand man shook his head. "No. But according to one of the Vongola branches in Sicily, the Shimon Famiglia, guardians of Vongola Decimo, and the Greatest Hitman in the World, Reborn, have arrived and are currently staying there."

"Really?" Nono asked, "Have they acquired any information of the whereabouts of Tsunayoshi? Any news on his kidnappers?"

Coyote sighed exasperatedly. "No, but-"

The knock on the door interrupted them.

"Nono! I have the new documents for you to sign!"

The two inside immediately ceased their talking.

"Come in, Iemitsu." Nono called, as normally as he could.

The door opened. "Here are the papers!" Iemitsu chirped, as happy as usual. "What's wrong?"

"Oh its nothing." Nono replied, smiling warmly. "Thank you, Iemitsu."

And he backed out, waving cheerfully, before the door closed with a final click.

The Vongola Nono and his Storm Guardian breathed out a sigh of relief.

Outside, however, the blond man stood, frozen, cheerful smile morphing into one of pure horror, before finally running down the hall as fast as he could.

* * *

 **Sicily: Morte Family**

The man followed them quietly. It sure was an odd group. Shimon Famiglia? Vongola guardians? Yeah, sure. Just a couple of brats.

He shadowed them, never making a single sound.

He had to admit, he was quite proud of his skills. He could hide his presence, so well that even his own "comrades" would miss him at times.

The childr- guardians seemed to be fighting amongst each other. He could barely resist the urge to bend over, laughing at their childish antics. Oh, what the boss could be doing to Sawada Tsunayoshi right now, and here his so called "guardians" were simply arguing. Looks like his friends weren't genuine after all.

What are friends anyway?

Human beings that stayed by your side, comforting you with lies, full of fake smiles and laughs. Creating an illusion that you aren't alone.

Who needs them? The man prefered the term comrades instead. Comrades. Disposable men who followed orders of a single boss along with you.

Quietly, he removed a hand from within his cloak, covered in dark coloring, smearing the black paint on the wall. He snickered, almost inaudibly.

Wrong move.

In an instant, the children hushed, and a baby with a fereda and green gun turned. He appeared to have been the one who had quieted them too. A single bullet narrowly missed him.

Shit. They were headed his way.

The man quickly turned, and silently left. By the time the brats had gotten to where he was before, he was long gone, off to report off to his boss.

And maybe even visit the child. Maybe torment him a bit with what he saw, children that hadn't seemed concerned about him the slightest bit. And watch as the brunette slowly breaks.

There was always fun in that.

* * *

"We're leaving _tomorrow_. We're gonna find that Morte idiot and make him tell us where Tenth is." As if to add to the effect, Gokudera cracked his knuckles, whether out of sheer nervousness or threateningly, did not matter.

Instead of being gloomy over the disappearance of Tsuna, the two families had instead decided to work on finding the mysterious stranger who had left the black Morte insignia painted on the wall just a night ago. Making a plan would also distract them from many of their worries. Though Nono had only hesitantly agreed, after hours of arguments, he would let the Vongola and Shimon go search in the city; but only if he could send ten of his best fighters for each family to make sure that they were safe, plus one extra bodyguard for each person.

In his point of view, this was barely even a small precaution against the Morte.

To be extremely honest, there was actually no plan. Since the tenth generation had been forbidden to leave, they had decided to instead go, tomorrow morning, to once again check out the spot where they had last seen the Morte guardian and work from there; though it was a rather lacking plan, each of the guardians went to bed full of anticipation for their search tomorrow, grateful to finally have a clue.

* * *

They boarded a helicopter back to Japan on the third day empty handed. Nobody spoke as they flew over the endless ocean; Gokudera looked like he wanted to push everyone off the helicopter and then kill himself by crash landing and no one blamed him. Over the three days, they had practically uprooted each building in Italy searching for Tsuna, but to no avail; he seemed to have truly vanished off the face of Earth. They never saw their stalker again either, but instead they saw the same insignia of the Morte, painted black, all over the place. However, there was nothing in common with the places where they found the insignia, the paint always fresh and still slightly wet.

Over those three days, Gokudera and the guardians barely got any sleep, obsessing over their almost pointless searches. It seemed as though the more desperate they were to find their Vongola boss, the further he slid from their distraught grasps.

* * *

 _Once again, the young child cried out in pain._

 _Where was everyone? Hadn't he waited long enough?_

" _Give up…" the man whispered, "They're not coming for you, and you know, don't you?"_

 _The brunette coughed. "Sh-shut...u-up..." he whispered._

" _As much as you deny it, you know, that they will_ never _come. Not now, not tomorrow, not_ ever _. You're_ forgotten, _Decimo…." the answer came._

 _The child flinched. 'Don't listen to him… don't listen to him… don't listen to him... he chanted to himself over and over again. He could feel his consciousness slowly slipping away, once again._

" _They. Will. Never. Come…" the same voice answered. "...They don't care about you…"_

" _Sh...u-ut….u-up…..." he choked out._

 _Grinning, the first kicked the second once more, before leaving the bloodied room and the brunette sagging limply on his knees, having blacked out._

" _Boss." three others called, saluting respectfully at the foot of the door._

 _The so-called boss smirked. "Finally. Revenge is wonderful, isn't it? He's breaking. It won't be long now."_

" _...the sky...is breaking…"_

* * *

 **Time Skip: Two Months Later**

All around the Sawada household, things were changing rather rapidly.

For safety and cover, Nana, I-Pin, Fuuta, and much to his anger, Lambo, had been sent to a hotel resort in Hawaii for a 'vacation,' which was, in truth, owned by the Vongola, so they could watch over Nana and the two children. The Shimon family soon left to search the rest of the world, since the young tenth generation guardians were forbidden to leave Japan for the time being, though not before bidding goodbye.

At first, Gokudera had run all around Japan again, shouting that he couldn't accept this, attempting to sneak out of the small country multiple times. After a few weeks of constantly being caught and dragged back by the guards sent by Nono, he stopped going to school and seldom made contact with the other guardians. Chrome and Mukuro had also seemed to disappear, their visits to the rest of the guardians and school less and less often until they stopped being seen altogether. Both Yamamoto and Ryohei had both temporarily left their team, which caused much panic and confusion. No one in the school could understand why the two would stop what was most important to them. Hibari had also seemed to lose his focus and determination to make everyone in school succumb under his discipline. Most times he lay on the roof sleeping or, when he wandered the halls; he was seldom focused and ignored half the obvious "crimes" around him. Needless to say, there was not a single person in the school that couldn't tell that something was wrong with the odd group. Lambo, after a few weeks of being denied love by everyone, had stopped being noisy and even began to do chores like washing the dishes and, at other times, he simply slept and wished for Nana. He was the only one left out of the frantic search, having been sent to the Hawaii 'vacation' with the others.

Without their precious boss and friend, the Vongola guardians were slowly falling apart.

* * *

Reborn sighed once again. He had lost count of just how many times he had sighed in the last couple of days alone; this wasn't including the entire four months since the disappearance of his student. By now, he could have been tortured, killed, who knows what.

And that's what he hated.

The arcobaleno had come to realize over the past four months that Tsuna wasn't just a student anymore. Without meaning to, Reborn had slowly begun to care for him.

Not only that. Tsuna hadn't gone through the inheritance ceremony quite yet. And Reborn was a failure of a tutor to let him get kidnapped before it.

A failure. That's what he was.

It wasn't the guardians' fault, as they all claimed. They hated themselves… no… despised themselves, for not protecting their boss properly like they wanted to. No. It wasn't their fault. It was his.

Because of his carelessness, stupidity, why, oh why was he so stupid? Why would he allow such a terrible mistake to happen? And they were all suffering because of him. Beca-

' _RING'_

The sharp ring of the phone in the deserted Sawada house rang, snapping him out of his self-loathing thoughts. Good thing too. This wasn't like him.

"Ciaossu, Sawada Residence." he said, holding the phone close to his ear.

" _R-Reborn-san!"_ the voice of the gloomy, red-haired teen sounded through the phone.

Reborn's eyes narrowed. It had been months since they last heard of them. Taking note of the clear panic in his voice, he replied, "Enma. What happened?"

" _R-Reborn-san! We believe we found where the Morte Famiglia hideout is!"_

And with that, the phone cut off and the baby ran out, hurrying towards the guardians, leaving a still-panicked Shimon boss at the other end of the phone.

* * *

" _Boss." a single man clothed in black said, entering the room. "We have finished it"_

 _The boss's smirk widened. "Oh? That was faster than I expected. Not bad. Now then… shall we try out our newest invention, Vongola Decimo? Give it to me."_

 _The other man nodded, handing a small box to him. "H-hai… But Boss, we aren't completely sure if it is perfected…"_

 _The boss grabbed it, and opened it eagerly. Inside was a single syringe, with a clear substance in it. He gingerly picked it up, and snickered. "Oohh… this will be fun to watch…it doesn't matter if it isn't perfected. As long as if it doesn't kill him. No one cares about the side effects~"_

 _And he inserted the needle into the boy's neck._

 _The reaction was immediate. As soon as the substance entered the teen's body, he coughed, choking on blood, screaming in pain. Thick, red blood flowed out his eyes, and he continued hacking it up. His body spasmed over and over, as the man stood, laughing insanely._

" _AHAHAHAHA! THIS IS THE BEST! Yes… THE BEST! JUST IMAGINE! Vongola Decimo… WITHOUT HIS WILL~! AHAHA!"_

* * *

"...Are you sure this is it…?"

The guardians from both the Shimon and Vongola tenth generation **(A/N Lambo isn't here. Just a reminder he got sent to Hawaii for his safety)** were standing in front of a set of huge, metal doors which led to what seemed to be an old, abandoned factory with chained and padlocked front doors. There were few narrow windows above the door, but they were cracked and dusty; it seemed rather unlikely that the Morte would be hiding here.

Nonetheless, each of the guardians had rushed here as quickly as they could, despite the fact that they had barely even seen each other for almost a month. Each one of them were desperately hoping that their long-lost boss would be here. And even if it was highly unlikely, and with only the words of the Shimon to trust, they still hoped, and now stood, gazing up at the broken building, each thinking the same.

Each hoping desperately to see Tsuna once again.

"Hey, Enma. You sure it's here?" Yamamoto asked, his now usual solemn face in place.

The redhead nodded vigorously, replying, "H-hai!"

"They have Tenth in this fucking run-down piece of shit?" Gokudera cursed.

"Oya oya?… I cannot seem to believe how absolutely _naive_ you are, puppy." Mukuro said. "If none of you _children_ have noticed, there is an illusion covering this entire area."

Chrome nodded timidly at his side.

Gokudera turned away from the mist guardian. "Bastard…"

"A-anyway!" Enma interrupted, "W-We're positive th-that Tsuna-kun is in h-here. "

Enma glanced at Gokudera's fuming expression and hastily continuing his explanation. "W-When we asked around t-the city, w-we heard that this factory was r-really unusual b-because it used to be a h-huge company u-until a few months a-ago. A-apparently o-on the day T-Tsuna-kun d-disappeared the e-entire building caught o-on f-fire...The s-strangest part was th-that that not a single b-body was f-found in the factory, and the factory i-itself hadn't really fallen a-apart. Many p-people had come and gone s-safely, finding nothing u-unusual, until o-one day someone found a s-set of footprints. I-It's said that he w-went in, f-following the footsteps, but v-vanished the n-next day. It's been the same for e-everyone who actually went i-in. Th-there are rumors th-that if you simply came and glanced at the b-building a bit and w-walked away, nothing would h-happen, b-but if you a-actually went i-inside, y-you would… well… d-disappear..."

Though Enma gave everyone a scared look when he finished his story, the others stared at him blankly, and his own guardians groaned. Adelheid gave a disapproving sigh.

"In conclusion, with the mist flames and the rumors, this is the only likely place where Sawada Tsunayoshi could possible be. We believe that the mist flames covering the area is giving it the broken down appearance." she explained, in a much simpler and calmer way. The others nodded.

Except Ryohei. "I extremely don't understand!"

Gokudera scoffed and turned to the doorway. "Like you would understand anything. Sounds like some stupid ghost story rumor or whatever. I'm going in."

"Gokudera. Wait." Reborn called. The storm immediately paused, turning around to face the arcobaleno. "We should avoid fighting at all cost for the time being."

"Wh-what?! Why?!" Gokudera asked.

"Maa maa, I agree with the kid right now, Hayato." Yamamoto said.

Chrome nodded. "Our first priority should be getting bossu out, Storm-san. We should try to avoid anyone and fights..."

For once, the silverette agreed without much of an argument, too eager to find Tsuna. With a curt nod, he strode towards the metal doors, and promptly kicked it down, making Enma cringe at the sudden sound. Gokudera entered the broken building, the others following close behind.

* * *

"INTRUDERS! WE HAVE INTRUDERS!"

"Fuck…"

A huge explosion erupted, causing the entire western side of the building to catch on fire. Screams and more explosions quickly followed.

"WHERE'S THE TENTH?!"

So much for avoiding fights.

* * *

" _Boss! They found us!" A man yelled frantically._

" _What?!" The boss replied, a deep scowl visible on his face. "Shit…"_

 _He glanced at the boy next to him, and pulled out the dagger he had imbedded in the back of the small child beside him out. The man wiped the blood off, before kneeling down next to the chained teen. And promptly punched the boy in the face._

 _The teen never responded. No words, screams of pain, nothing. The only reaction the man received was his head jerking backwards before falling limply down again, the light rattle of the chains, and the blood flowing from a new wound, a purple bruise appearing on the right cheek. The man scoffed again, tilting the child's face upwards, looking at him. The blood had stopped flowing from his eyes, and the right eye had turned deep gold, almost as if in HDWM. The heterochromic eyes stared dully back at him._ _They had lost the usual shine, almost as if the boy weren't even alive._

 _And most would have thought it was corpse, if it weren't for the faint movements of his chest rising up and down, signifying the he was still alive._

 _The man snickered, releasing his hand and standing up._

" _Oh? Looks like he broke~! No matter. We're getting out of here."_

* * *

The group was now fighting, and arguing, as they made their way around the Morte's hideout. The illusion had been broken, in courtesy to Mukuro and Chrome, revealing the actual hideout. It was multiple stories, including several underground.

"KOZATO! YOU GO TO THE FUCKING BASEMENTS! WE'LL TAKE IT UP HERE!" Gokudera screamed, aiming another batch of dynamite at the incoming group of guards.

"H-HAI!" Enma called back. With that, the Shimon took the stairs to the underground layers, while the Vongola continued down the hall, explosions and screams erupting along the way.

* * *

"OI! LOSER-ENMA! I THINK I FOUND SOME HIDDEN DOORS~!" Julie called. They were currently on the first underground floor, had been running about, exploring and dodging guards ever since they entered the underground layers of the hideout.

Adelheid nodded. "Good. We're splitting up. Enma. You're with me. We're going into the hidden doors. Koyo, take the other hidden layer. Julie-second floor. Kaoru-third floor. Rauji-fourth and Shitt-P, take the fifth."

The group nodded, and immediately split up, heading towards their assigned area, no complaints for once.

* * *

"FUCK!" Gokudera cursed once more. They had basically beaten every person they had come across senseless. But after searching every inch of every floor above the ground, they still had not found a single clue on the whereabouts of their boss. Thus, the Vongola tenth generation had decided to head underground to meet up with the Shimon. They headed down the stairs, unconscious bodies littering the floor.

* * *

 _"We're getting out of here." the boss said. Unfortunately for them, in that moment, the door blasted open, revealing a redhead and a tall woman holding a pair of metal fans._

" _...Shit…"_

* * *

The Vongola tenth generation were heading down the dark halls when they heard the explosion.

"What was that?" Yamamoto asked, eyes narrowing.

Ryohei shook his head. "I extremely don't know!"

The head prefect of Namimori ignored them, and turned, already heading for the source of the disruption. The rest glanced at each other, before following quickly behind them. After twists and turns one after another, they arrived, at what seemed like a regular wall that had been broken into pieces.

"What happened here?" Gokudera asked. None replied him. Instead, they entered, finding a hidden room.

Along with Enma and Adelheid.

The two were standing frozen, shock written on every surface of their faces. And for once, pure fury could be seen in the midst of the horror in Enma's expression.

"Oy! Kozato! What happened he...re…..?" Gokudera's voice slowly trailed off as he took in his surroundings.

Two unrecognizable men stood in the middle of the area, both wearing black. One was taller than the other, with the obvious 'boss' attitude. He had coal black hair that fell to his shoulders, and small, dark red eyes. His eyes, unlike Xanxus's, were cold and mocking, no sign of warmth in them, though they were around the same color.

And behind them, was a small brunette with gravity-defying hair was sagging limply, only held up by the chains on his wrists. Purple bruised decorated his pale skin, as well as blood that seemed to ooze from every wound on his body. And some of them… were just too gruesome to look at.

"...Tsuna…?"

* * *

 _...to be continued…_

* * *

 **Rachel: *dodges flying knives* PLEASE-DON'T-MURDER-ME-IM-SORRY-IM-SORRY-IM *get hit by a flying knife***

 **Sabrina: actually as long as you review then go ahead you can kill her**

 **Rachel: *pulls out knife from her head* HAHA NOPE BITCHES YOU CANT KILL ME *bullet flies towards her* NOPE JKJK I WAS JOKIIINNNNNGGGG**

 **Sabrina: i think this is the aftershock from writing all those torture scenes you should probably take a chill pill before you write any more**

 **Rachel: haHaHAHa WhAt aRE yOu TalKIng AbOuT HahAhAHaHAha?!**

 **Sabrina: you should be happy that my writing sucks or else I'd keep my distance from you for a few days for several safety reasons**

 **Rachel:... ok then Dear whatever you saaayyyy... Why don't the readers ever throw anything at you? Why is it always me...? OH SHIT THE AUDITION RESULTS ARE COMING OUT TOMORRROOOOOOWWWWW**

 **Sabrina: WHY DID YOU REMIND ME NOW I WON'T BE ABLE TO SLEEP AGAIN**

 **Rachel: I'M SORRY NOW REVVVIIIEEEEEEWWWWWWW**

 **Sabrina: APOLOGY NOT ACCEPTED and yeah can we change our genre to horror. and add character death warnings**

 **Rachel: SEE IF I CARE DEAR**

A/N

HAHA JUST BECAUSE WE ARE DESPERATE FOR REVIEWS WE SHALL NOW BE EVIL (dont worry after this chapter we will probably never ever EVER do this again haha just this chapter and we're both kinda being mentally unstable due to auditions haha this is the only reason why) AND NOT POST THE NEXT CHAPTER UNTIL WE GET…. 10 MORE REVIEW MWAHAHAHA (sorry XP so in conclusion JUST REVIEW~!)

 **UNTIL NEXT CHAPTER**

 **Ciao~**

 **Rachel and Sabrina**


	4. Changes

**Rachel: Haha… miss us anyone….? *knife lands next to her* OH MAYBE NOT**

 **Sabrina: *hides behind you* is it safe now**

 **Rachel: WHY YOU HIDE BEHIND *gets stabbed in back by knife* ...me...**

 **Fran: Author-san, there seems to be some people out there that want to kill you.**

 **Sabrina: which one there's two of us it's. Rachel right.**

 **Fran: Haaaiiii *gets stabbed by the same bloody knife Rachel got stabbed with (yes the blood is Rachel's)* Rachel-senpaaiii. Could you please not stab me.**

 **Rachel: *smirks evilly* then say the disclaimer.**

 **Fran: Haaiii. There's no way someone like senpai could own us. Could you take the knife out now.**

 **Sabrina: *observing scene through binoculars while standing a few miles away* huh that was blunt**

 **Rachel: *pulls out knife* Aw Fran you're so cute when you're not insulting me~**

 **Fran: Haaaiii. Please get on with the story senpai.**

 **Sabrina: I swear they're both senile**

* * *

 **Replies to Reviews (The replies took up like two whole pages feel happy people XD)(And yes we didn't get 10 reviews...unfortunately...but you reviewers made us so happy we insisted on updating anyway XD)~**

 **QuirkyKit:** Sabrina- iloveyouiloveyouiloveyouiloveyouiloveyouiloveyouiloveyouiloveyou because even though you didn't actually review ten times you were our first second-chapter reviewer and your one review was worth ten to me so please keep on reviewing they make me feel warm on the inside~

sorry i was reading romance manga all weekend it's getting to my head

Rachel- Haha i can't really add anything else to that! When I read ur review… it just made me so happy that I can't really describe it in words. THANK YOU SO MUCH~! and I really hope that you keep reading our story and like it XDXD

 **Reptainlove:** Rachel- Haha if you think its original YAY~! Basically all stories with me as one of the writers will include torture so haha :) THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR REVIEWINNGGG

Sabrina- YES I CAN DIE HAPPY NOW just kidding i dun wanna die yet but anyways. reviews like yours always make me so happy :D because its hard to get original ideas in a fandom with so many fics so this made me super haappyyyyyyyyy

 **R-Ace27:** Sabrina: you're definitely welcome for the update we worked hard on it :D and plus it makes us happy when our readers like our chapters. And I'm sorry to say, but if you think Tsuna's suffering right now, you're about to get a biigg surprise

Rachel- Haha no worries there will be more positive parts of this story, of course, so please keep reading and reviewing! Thanks!

 **Holymagic:** Sabrina- OH MY GOD YOU'VE SAID THE FORBIDDEN PHRASE "Tsuna-fish" will be very taboo around Iemitsu after this chapter *laughs slightly sadistically* and yes, you're about to find out about (most of) the loose ends from our last chapter so please keep on reading :D

Rachel- Its ok if you don't get the "tuna-fish" thing XP Please, just read this chapter and you'll understand. Yeah we realized that your question wasn't answered in it and it wasn't very clear in the last chapter (it wasnt supposed to XP) but it'll be explained in this chapter and basically everything Sabrina said so… JUST KEEP READING AND REVIEWING THX SO MUCCCHHHHH

 **LuthienOronar:** Sabrina- *scrolling through emails* "meh...not interested...just grades and stuff" *sees fanfiction alert* "oohh! a review from...LuthienOronar!" *after reading the review* "OH MY GOD TYSFM PLEASE LEAVE MORE REVIEWS"

Rachel- *staring at blank inbox for ages* "uggghhh why won't dont I ever get any mailll *cries* *sees new mail in inbox* "OH WOW MAYBE I'M NOT A LONER FOR LIFE" *reads review* *cries tears of happiness and laughter* "I LOVED YOUR REVIEW IT WAS JUST SO AWESOME AND FUNNY TOO THANK YOU SO DAMN MUCH!

 **Elizabeth (Guest):** Sabrina- yes, we love our story tooooo 3 And if you love torture, this isn't even the beginning it's only a matter of time until _everyone_ starts falling into the endless feels pit. *laughs*

Rachel- please don't mind Sabrina there. I'm glad you enjoyed our/my torture scenes haha~! And thank you so much for dropping by, reading and reviewing!

 **ak9 (Guest):** Rachel- haha no worries~ I guess the most original part of this story would be the ton of torture… O.o We'll try to update when we can but hey we have homework and cellos too. Although of course we don't have a life and nothing is more important than this story XP. Except my cello. Kazuko is very important (sorry just ignore my ramblings haha)

Sabrina- It's perfectly ok that's how i feel whenever i look back at my life :D even though honestly i still haven't found the "worthy" part but I'm really happy that you put your honest opinion and yes we'll try our best to finish the chapter soon!

* * *

 **Warning: this is going to be one of the especially dark and sad chapters**

* * *

 _Last Time:_

 _After searching for so long, the Shimon and Vongola still have gained no clue about the whereabouts of Tsuna except for the insignia of the Morte family painted on the wall and the discovery that they were being tailed. After a few months, the Shimon and Vongola finally discover the Morte's secret base, only to find the Morte boss and his right hand man and...Tsuna…?_

* * *

"...Tsuna…?"

The gathered group stood frozen in place; they had somehow all managed to appear at the doorway all at the same time, though their expressions varied from anger to fear to shock. The silence was deafening, though none of the guardians dared to break it first. Hadn't it just been a few minutes since they first broke into the factory? Had… had the Morte underestimated them so much that they were so unprepared for them?

And as if on cue he broke the silence.

"Welcome."

His voice was strange; there was no way else to describe it. The man's tone seemed to always be in a drawl, fake politeness and tints of sarcasm slipping through. It radiated authority, the kind of authority that made everyone in its vicinity want to cower back and shrink into the shadows, as well as hints of bloodlust. He spoke again.

"Why, I forgot to introduce myself, didn't I, _dear_ Vongola and Shimon famiglia?! Well, nice to meet you. I am Gualtiero, current boss of the Morte Famiglia! _So_. Lost for words, it seems. _I_ wouldn't be surprised. If _I_ saw my _boss_ in this condition," he said with a smirk, "I would be rather _angry_ too."

Gualtiero stepped forward casually. "But you see, I don't quite understand. Why the, oh _so_ famous, _Vongola_ would fall so low to become allies with the _lowly Shimon_? Why they would choose, a simply _child_ to lead the next generation. A weak. _Pathetic._ _ **Child.**_ "

And he turned and kicked the small brunette in the stomach.

Gualtiero turned to face his audience once again as his near unconscious victim coughed up blood. The tensed bodies, clenched fists, they were so amusing to see. And best, the looks stuck between horror and fear at what he could do to their precious boss.

However, a certain storm guardian's expression soon turned from horror to a burning anger as he, obviously without thinking it through, dashed forward, his hands in position to punch the Morte boss in the face.

"Don't you _dare_ talk about the tenth like that-"

And he swung; but the attack never landed.

Instead, before any of the guardians could even blink or walk forwards to pull Gokudera back, the said guardian was suddenly pushed back with such a force that he landed in the opposite wall, where many of the guardians were still stuck in the doorway and not quite in the room, promptly crashing into the wall, creating a crack in the concrete so large that part of the wall began to give away. A trail of blood trickled down Gokudera's head.

"Gokudera.!? Wha..?"

Gualtiero's companion, the same hooded guardian that had been tailing them in Italy, was in front of Gualtiero, looking and standing there as if he had always been there and had never made the attack.

"I suggest you don't touch me; my _subordinate_ here don't quite appreciate some filthy weakling such as you touching me. You see, we have a _slight_ history with the Vongola." The Morte boss smoothed his jacket and gave a small gesture to his hooded servant, who walked away to the side once more. "And what I mean by _history,_ you see, is _quite_ a bad one. Of course, the Vongola, being the oh _so_ wonderful vigilante group they were in your precious _Primo_ 's time, they decided to wipe us out."

Mukuro was now holding back a furious Chrome, tridents in their hands. Though he appeared calmer, the mocking expression was no longer on his face, replaced by one of seriousness and rage.

"Not completely finished the job, as you can see. Bad mistake, I would say. It gave us a _wonderful_ chance to grow again, and now, by my time, we are ready for our _revenge._ Why not take the chance to destroy the Vongola? Just capture this _little piece of shit_ here-"

Ryohei's flames were lighting up, his fists clenched so tightly blood began staining the bandages on his hands.

"-And the Vongola would have no good heir. And I hear that Decimo, here, defeated the only other living candidate. Xanxus, was it? And if a mere child could defeat him, how hard would it be for us?"

Hibari's tonfas were out, surrounded by his purple cloud flames, anger nearly visible in the air.

"Originally, we planned to just kill off the Decimo, but then I thought, what fun would that be? Why not bring him over… and play with him a bit-"

Yamamoto's expression was one that none had seen before. Pure, pure anger. His sword was out, poised to attack at a moment's notice.

"-Until, of course, you children appeared. Quite unfortunate too; I wasn't quite done having my fun. I was actually very surprised. Didn't think a couple of children could find our hideout."

Shadows covered Enma's blood red eyes. Gone, was his loser side and instead, a cold, furious boss replaced it.

"But of course. It would be very easy to make it look as if a slight accident happened, and you all… died…"

Immediately, the group of teens tensed, ready to attack. However, before any of them could act rashly out of their anger, Reborn, who had barely ever moved throughout the entire scene, stepped forward.

Gualtiero stepped forward, ignoring the shocked reactions of each of the guardians as he cracked his knuckles. "So...you've finally stepped forward, huh, arcobaleno. Wanting you _dear little pupil_ here back? I have absolutely _no_ complaints, although I'm afraid you'll have to, hm, kill m-"

"I will not fight you. For one, you would stand no chance. Give Tsuna back," Reborn said through clenched teeth. To everyone's immense surprise, Reborn gave off a small, stiff smile as he looked straight into the Morte boss's eyes. "You see, I also don't approve of what you've done to the next Vongola boss; the usual punishments that I give him are _very_ light and I don't think Dame-Tsuna can stand this. So. I'll say this once. Hand him over."

Immediately, everyone felt an aura around the small arcobaleno change, and they seemed to see, perhaps it was a trick of the eye, not the child reborn but an adult, animosity filling every corner of the room. They blinked again and Reborn was there, the same cold smile on his face.

"Hahaha.. AHAHAHA! OH? HOW INTERESTING~! YOU THINK I WOULD STAND _NO_ CHANCE AGAINST _YOU,_ THE _WORLD'S GREATEST HITMAN,_ WHO DID NOT EVEN REALIZE I HAD ONE OF MY _WEAKEST_ MEN TAILING YOU? AHAHA OH THAT'S RICH!" Gualtiero laughed. He doubled over, laughing and laughing and laughing, his red eyes flashing mockingly as the group watched, tense. He wiped tears away from the corner of his eyes, and stood back up straight. "If I couldn't beat mere _children_ , I'm sure I wouldn't have… what's the word for this… ah… _invited_ the Vongola Decimo here for some fun. I was, of course, planning on keeping him here just a _tad_ longer, but…"

With that, every person excluding him slid into their battle stances. He smirked.

"...No… there's really no need to keep him here." He gestured towards his subordinate. "Very well. You can have him."

However, instead of relaxing at the prospect of finally getting their boss back, they were even more worried now. It couldn't be _this_ easy...could it..?

Gualtiero stepped over, the hooded man following close behind, slowly making his way for the broken doorway where the guardians stood. As he passed Enma and Adelheid, they stepped back, Enma in HDWM, Adel's metal fans out in front of her. But the man paid no attention to them, only giving them a quick sneer. He kept walking, and finally, paused in front of the sun arcobaleno and bending down.

"But it wouldn't make any difference even if you had him," he whispered, "He's already much worse than broken…"

And with that, just like how Tsuna had first gone, they disappeared.

* * *

 _There was nowhere to go. Everything was dark. Everything was gone, even the smallest trickles of light. They had left him, just like he had said. They had all left him wandering in the dark, alone, lost, where he could feel nothing, hear nothing, see nothing. They had all left him._

 _He had nowhere to belong now; everyone had left him, everyone had shut him out. The only company he had now was the throbbing darkness of his thoughts and the burning fear that was slowly consuming him from the inside, an incurable disease._

 _It was dark here, no flame to lighten up his own mindscape._

 _And it was cold, the flame having withered and died away._

 _His flame, his will._

 _Everyone had left him, erased him from their minds, and he could only listen to those whispered words of advice he had been given: trust no one, not even yourself._

 _At least he got away. Left the room full of chains and blood and painful memories._

 _Now he wandered, in his own mindscape, and it began feeling more peaceful than ever._

 _Why worry about anything anyway? No one cared about him. It was proven since no one came to help._

 _Trust no one, not even yourself._

 _Don't let anyone come and get too close, too familiar. Because if that happens…_

 _Bad things happen. Bad things he didn't wish to think about._

 _Trust no one. Not even yourself._

 _Even if he thought he found someone who cared, even if he convinced himself that they cared, he was wrong. He's always wrong. And so, why should he trust himself anymore?_

 _Trust no one. Not even. Yourself._

* * *

This wasn't right. It _couldn't_ be right. Getting Tsuna home...simply looking for him had taken _months,_ and now, all of a sudden, they had him back, and everything had happened in a simple hour. It didn't seem possible, and though each and every one of the guardians wanted to believe that everything was going to be over soon, they each knew, though they would never admit it, that things were just beginning. It was far from being over.

On the extremely speeded plane ride back to Italy, Tsuna had been put in a separate plane to be put under immediate surgery, with only the surgeons and Reborn as company, and even Gokudera, who now had a bandage around his head, had no energy to argue back; the shock wouldn't be leaving them for a while.

Now, in Sicily where the search had originally started, each of the guardians were seated besides Tsuna's temporary bed, some on the ground, some on chairs, and some standing up, but each of were situated far from Tsuna's bed for, as Reborn had said, "certain precautions."

Why Tsuna was not in the hospital, nobody but Reborn knew, and again, only the arcobaleno knew the reason for the square-shaped medical eyepatch fit snugly on the Vongola boss's right eye. Bandages covered the gruesome wounds all over his body, hiding them and the dark bruises from view. Which, in many's points of view, was a rather good thing. And no one other than Reborn himself knew what the Morte famiglia boss had said before he disappeared; nobody dared asked when they each saw the expression on his face.

The room was dead silent, everyone absorbed in their own thoughts and numb fear, so when Tsuna shifted in his bed it snapped everyone from their thoughts. Immediately, all heads turned in the direction of the bed and all the seated guardians sprang up, concern and tints of excitement noticeable. Gokudera took a hesitant step towards his boss, but was immediately stopped by the harsh glare sent his way by Reborn.

And Tsuna's eye slowly cracked open.

* * *

 _Slowly, he opened his left eye, for his right was covered by something. His entire body felt numb, almost like he..couldn't feel anything. Everything looked so clear, yet so blurry and unfocused at the same time. And he could hear voices. As if from a far distance. And he wasn't in the bloody room anymore, nor his own, comfortable, safe mind._

 _And for some reason, he didn't feel threatened, or safe._

 _He just felt… numb_

* * *

The guardians watched as their boss gradually woke up; they stayed in their positions, watching. And very slowly, Tsuna sat up, eye darting around the room, studying it, before landing on the group crowded in front of him.

"TENTH!" Gokudera cried, first to break the awkward silence. Immediately, everyone relaxed, reverting back to the way they were before Tsuna disappeared.

"Tsuna!"

"SAWADA TO THE EXTREME!

"B-bossu…"

"Tsunayoshi."

"Little Animal."

"Ts-Tsuna-kun!"

"TENTH WE WERE SO WORRIED! I'M A FAILURE AS YOUR RIGHT-HAND MAN I WASN'T ABLE TO PROTECT YOU ITS ALL MY FAULT-"

"Maa maa, Tsuna's fine now isn't he?"

"A-ano… everyone…" Enma started.

"YES! SAWADA IS HERE NOT TO THE EXTREME!"

"Herbivore… for making us worry I will bite you to death…"

"U-um… hey… e-everyone… um…-" The Shimon Decimo tried again, only to be cut off once more.

"Maa maa… Tsuna just got back… maybe you shouldn't injure him more…?"

"Kufufufu…. Tsunayoshi... "

"SHUT UP AND SHOW THE TENTH SOME RESPECT!"

"WHAT DID YOU SAY OCTOPUS-HEAD?!"

"E-everyone! Ts-Tsuna-kun-" Enma raised his voice slightly, but was still unheard.

"OY I SAID-"

"Shut up." Reborn growled, glaring at the group, who had nearly begun guardians silenced immediately, while Enma called, "E-everyone! Something's wrong with Tsuna-kun!"

And it was quite true. While the guardians had been busy arguing, Tsuna had stayed there, sitting on the oversized bed, staring blankly at them with his shoulders squared and tense. His eye was dull, almost as if he was still unconscious. And all the while, he had not uttered a single sound, nor moved.

"...Tenth…?"

* * *

Vongola Nono had gotten off the jet, and was rushing towards the same place the tenth generation had stopped at when they first realized they were being tailed by the Morte. In the headquarters in Sicily. Rushing in front of him was his outside advisor, Iemitsu.

Four months ago, after the blond had left his office, he had rushed back to Japan. And found nothing. Four months ago, Timoteo had spent hours in his office, being yelled at by Iemitsu. He had, unfortunately, overheard the ninth and his storm guardians' conversation regarding the missing Tsuna, and left without any word. And when Iemitsu realized that his son was really missing, he had raged. First, spending hours in Timoteo office, screaming about his son, then gone into depression.

And the moment a subordinate had rushed into the office with the news of Tsuna, Iemitsu had sprung up, already heading towards Sicily at top speed, Nono close behind.

And now, in the mansion, ignoring the servants that bowed and asked if they wished for refreshments, the two hurried along, down the hall, and the blond burst into the room where his son was.

* * *

"...Tenth…?" Gokudera asked, turning towards his boss. "A-are you ok?"

Tsuna stared blankly back at him.

There was a long stretch of silence before the brunette finally replied.

"Gokudera Hayato...?" he asked, his blank face never changing, not a hint of emotion seen on his face.

The group stared back at him.

And the door blasted open.

"MY TUNA-FISH!" Iemitsu, of all people, screamed as he burst through the doorway. "ARE YOU OK, MY TUNA-FISH!"

Tsuna turned to his father, replying in a monotone, "There are no tuna-fish in the current room."

Everyone froze.

"...Tuna...fish… Tsuna… don't you remember your nickname…?" the blond asked slowly.

The brunette stared back, tilting his head slightly to the right. "I apologize. My name is Sawada Tsunayoshi. There are no tuna-fish in the current room."

More silence filled the room. Before Iemitsu turned hesitantly to Reborn.

"What happened to him…?" he asked.

Reborn shook his head. "I don't know. But the Morte Famiglia boss said this to me before he left: 'He's already much worse than broken.'"

"That's what he said to you? That's what you refused to tell us?!" Yamamoto asked sharply, narrowing his usually cheerful eyes.

The arcobaleno only nodded grimly. "Yes. This was not what I was expecting though."

"What happened to him! What happened to Tsuna?!" Iemitsu asked, voice rising higher. He began making his way towards his broken son, reaching out to him. "Tsuna? What did they do to you?"

But the moment his fingertips brushed against the brunette's pale skin, Tsuna snapped.

* * *

 _The people crowding around him kept asking him the same question over and and over again._

" _Are you ok?"_

 _Everything he saw... it was almost as if seeing it from the other side of a thick wall of glass. Hearing things from the other side of a wall. Muffled. Blocked. And no matter how hard he tried to focus on the blurry outlines of the people, to process the now foreign words, he couldn't understand those three simple words._

" _Are you ok?"_

 _What was even stranger was the blond man that he could just faintly recognize. The blond went going on about tuna-fish, and he just couldn't understand. There were no tuna-fish in the room._

 _But when the blond man touched him…_

 _...he just snapped._

 _The numbing sensation disappeared, instead replaced with fire. The terrible, terrible fire. The one that burned him from inside out._

 _Images filled his head. Of the man in black digging the sharp knife into his skin. Of the man kicking him._

 _Of that man._

 _And he screamed._

* * *

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" Tsuna screamed, flinching away from the slight touch. Everyone in the room was shocked; one moment he had nearly no emotions, and now he was screaming, fear and discomfort visible on his face.

"Ts-Tsuna…?" Iemitsu asked, shocked. His hand was left hanging midair, expression filled with pain.

 _Why were they doing this?_

"STAY AWAY! GET AWAY FROM ME! DON'T TOUCH ME!" Tsuna cried.

He scrambled off the bed, backing into the nearest corner, knocking over a glass case in the process. His breathing hitched and he began gasping for breath. Cuts formed on his hands from the broken glass.

"Tenth! P-Please calm down!" Gokudera called. He stepped forward, only to met by more screams.

 _Couldn't they tell that they were hurting him...?...wait...who_ were _they….?_

"STAY AWAY! JUST GET AWAY!" Tsuna yelled. He began shaking, squeezing his eyes shut and clutching his head. Droplets of blood slowly seeped through his bandages, indicating that his wounds had opened once again.

"Tsuna! Stop it! You're beginning to hyperventilate!" Reborn snapped. The said teen was curled up in the corner, eye wide with fear, screaming. "Goddamn it… Someone knock him out before he kills himself!"

Iemitsu immediately went forward, setting a hand on his shoulder soothingly, trying to calm him down. But received a negative response.

"GET OFF ME GET OFF ME _GET OFF ME!_ " Tsuna screamed. He clawed at the hand as an attempt to get rid of it. "DON'T COME NEAR ME! STAY AWAY!"

 _Stop...! Why didn't they stop?! Why didn't they understand?_

The brunette kicked his own father in the stomach, before grabbing a larger piece of glass, and stabbed the blond in the stomach, the look in his face the equivalent of a wild animal who had finally been cornered.

And chaos began.

"TSUNA DAMMIT CALM DOWN! NO, EVERYONE, _STAY AWAY!_ " Reborn yelled, stepping forward, Leon already in his hand as a gun. This only seemed to increase his panic.

"STAY AWAY FROM ME!" Tsuna yelled. "JUST STAY AWAY!"

Chrome hadn't moved, and seemed to be either so scared or shocked that her ability to move was taken away as she stood flat to the wall, an expression of horror.

Hibari had an expression never seen before plastered on his face, and he, too, seemed at lost as to what to do.

Yamamoto and Mukuro were both trying extremely hard to hold back Gokudera, who seemed to be in just as much fear and panic as Tsuna, unable to scope the situation.

And then, as if in slow motion, Iemitsu plunged the needle into his son's neck, his own blood dripping onto Tsuna as he tried in vain to cover his wound with the hand that wasn't holding the needle.

Guilty eyes mingling with fear and hurt met with the wide, frightened eye as Tsuna , who couldn't keep his eyes off his blood-stained hands and arms, stumbled backwards, tripped over his own two feet, and fell to the floor as he struggled to move his now slowly numbing limbs. He opened his mouth, but no words came out, so he spoke with his eyes, pleading eyes that Iemitsu had to look away from after several moments of heartbreak.

 _Just stop...stop the pain...someone...help me…_

"Please….let..me.. let me….out….."

As he did moments ago, Tsuna clutched his head as if in intense pain as he lay there, eye still filled with terror and breathing rapidly until he finally slipped unconscious.

His expression far from relaxed.

Had they been too late?

* * *

 _It was dark again, everything was dark, but, for the first time, he could see a light in the path ahead. A black path leading ahead to a warm light that pulled him forward._

 _My friends...they're waiting for me..._

 _However, as soon as Tsuna thought that, the small group of people began to walk away from him, the light leaving with them._

" _W-wait! Wait for me!" The group didn't stop._

 _He broke out at a run, the surrounding darkness biting at his heels._

 _Just a few steps later, he tripped, landing face-flat in the dirt as he scraped his knees. Undaunted, he immediately stood up, leaving behind his fallen shoe and quickly dusting off his slightly bloodied knees._

 _If he reached them, everything would be fine. His friends would help him, and there would be warm light._

 _He ran again, this time a bit slower than before and with random bursts of speed. However, the faster he went, the faster the group ahead seemed to go._

 _He tripped again this time because of his unbalanced feet, the other shoe also slipping off. This time, he also felt the burn on his palms, but stood up again hastily, hopeful smile still plastered on his face._

 _It would be fine._

 _All he had to do was reach his friends._

 _He didn't care how much pain he got, or how many pairs of shoes he lost, as long as he reached them, he wouldn't mind._

 _He ignored the stinging pain, the darkness surrounding him, he ignored his sinking heart. He was going to reach them. Even if he didn't, he knew that they would wait. They would definitely wait. After all, they were friends...weren't they?_

 _As he ran, Tsuna looked behind him, at the path behind him as it slowly melted away. Faster...faster! He was almost there...with his friends...everyone…._

 _He fell again, and this time, slid several feet downhill and inflicting several cuts on his unprotected feet and arms. But he refused to cry. He would cry only when he reached them, when he knew that he would be safe with them again._

 _At last he was there. He was finally here with his friends. He wouldn't be lonely anymore. He wouldn't have to be by himself_

 _However, as he called out to them, as he walked towards them, limping, he suddenly couldn't remember them. Who were they…? Why had he been running to them? Why was he still smiling?_

 _The group turned around to look at Tsuna who, despite his injuries, was still smiling his sad, hopeful smile, the ones that never reached his large chocolate eyes._

 _Everyone exchanged a look._

" _Who are you?"_

* * *

"FUCK! WHAT DID WE DO WRONG?! WHY! Why...why did we find him...so late...why.."

Gokudera had his face buried in his hands as everyone sat around the living room table, each of their eyes unseeing and minds whirring.

Iemitsu and Reborn had, after leaving Tsuna on his bed wrapped tightly in bedsheets, cleared everything from his room since now, in Tsuna's state, everything could become a weapon. The wound Tsuna had given his father had been, fortunately, pretty shallow, and was healed in moments with the help of some sun flames. They had then pushed everyone out of the room, made tea, and forced them to sit in the living room while they went to the room farthest from the living room, to talk about matters that everyone was left out of again. Nobody, not even Hibari, had complained even once throughout their- so far- 20 minute silence.

They simply sat there, listening to the ticking of the clock.

30 minutes. And no one had spoken a single word yet.

40 minutes. Not a single person had moved from their tensed positions.

50 minutes. Nobody had started any arguments or fights, not even the mist and the cloud standing next to each other.

60 minutes. And they kept waiting.

* * *

When the two adults walked back into the room and hour and a half later, and stood in front of the table, waiting for someone to shout at them, nobody looked up from their laps or attempted to speak about what had just occurred.

So they just stood there, the two adults, at the head of the table, while the rest of the guardians sat there, staring at their laps or fumbling with their now ice-cold tea. Hibari glared out the window. Even Iemitsu refused to look at nothing but the sink.

So Reborn spoke first.

"We're going to experiment on Tsuna"

* * *

 _...to be continued…_

* * *

 **Rachel: OK Y'ALL*dodges knife* I'M IN NO MOOD FOR Y'ALL THROWING STUFF AT ME CUZ SABRINA HERE MADE ME CRY (she did all the mental torture in this chapter… basically everything.)**

 **Sabrina: I'M DEFINITELY STILL INNOCENT. *bunch of bullets fly towards her* I TOTALLY WASN'T THE ONE WHO WROTE ALL THAT PSYCHOLOGICAL TORTURE *bunch of bullets fly towards her* darn it now i'll become a victim too**

 **Rachel: DON'T WE ALL HATE SABRINA FOR THIS RIGHT NOW?! *screams of agreement* Ya see Dear, we all hate you for torturing Tsuna right now and EVEN WHEN I BEGGED YOU TO STOP THE ONLY THING YOU SAID WAS "Stop? But I just started!" *screams and tears***

 **Anyway, we (Rachel) sincerely apologize for this (blame Sabrina if you hate us right now. I hate us too). Please, please, PLEASE, review (yeah I get it send us hate mail T_T). Until next chapter (Don't worry I, as in Rachel, will try my best to stop Sabrina and her mental torture)**

 **Sorry, the next few chapters might be posted slower, because someone *cough*Sabrina*cough* is currently failing terribly at school. Like as in literally _failing_. Thus, we (Rachel) sincerely apologize if the next few chapters take a bit longer. And that someone*cough*Sabrina*cough* is trying very hard, but unfortunately Sabrina's exact words were: ** "Ok I swear if my grades don't rise up by the end of the week I'm going to end up cutting off Tsuna's left leg. Because what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. T_T" **So lets all pray that Sabrina gets better grades! Thanks so much for reading (see that very inviting looking button down there that says "Review"? Try clicking on it :) !)**

 **Ciao~**

 **~Rachel and Sabrina**

A/N QUESTION!

We have two possible endings at the moment, and we would just like to ask:

Would you guys prefer a sad ending or a happy ending?

Please leave your answer as a review (plus some feedback plz XD)

Thank you~!


	5. Omake: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TSUNA

**Rachel: HEY GUYS! Just saying…** **THIS IS NOT AN ACTUAL CHAPTER! ITS JUST A RANDOM OMAKE OR WHATEVER IN HONOR OF TSUNA'S BIRTHDAY (happy birthdayyyyy~!)**

 **Sabrina: yes, so basically the next chapter will continue from the last chapter, not this one. anways, HAPPY B-DAY TSUNAAA**

 **Rachel: Yeah, it doesn't really have to do with the story at all. HAPPY BIRTHDAY AGAIN TSUNA!**

 **Sabrina: This is mostly written by me and edited by Rachel**

 **Rachel: DON'T OWN KHR!**

 **A/N**

 **It's a little bit sad, we guess, but its kind of family fluff and a sad/happy ending.**

 **We have also published a separate one-shot for Tsuna's birthday, so please do check that out!**

* * *

 _Everything was black and white, no gray in between; just a background of black and lines of white._

 _They were at the zoo._

 _Tsuna was standing in the middle of a huge crowd, and he turned many times, wondering why he was there, until he saw something that made him stop; he saw himself, many years younger, chatting happily as he walked, holding his mother and father's hand. Thinking back, Tsuna tried to remember what had happened that day or, more precisely, this moment and now. It wasn't that hard, considering the fact that this, as Tsuna had remembered (and was currently reliving) was his first time at the zoo._

 _He had, specifically, been looking forward to seeing the lions, which was everything that he was not but hoped to be. Strong. Brave. The best. Now that he looked back at it, Tsuna thought how strange it was that he had wanted to grow up to be like an animal, it had been on one great obsession._

 _As Tsuna followed his younger self, weaving through the crowd, he found out that he seemed to be nonexistent to everyone else, like a ghost. He could walk through everything in his way, which was quite convenient considering the fact that the zoo was extremely crowded._

 _He trailed behind his younger self, predicting what he was going to do next (not that he was ever wrong, considering this was his memory) and soon found himself standing in front of the lion enclosure, which in it kept a pair of lions and a young lion cub, climbing a rather tall branch and batting at a small bird._

 _Tsuna watched the lion's every step, the growing fascination on the look of his younger self. He remembered how the cub had stumbled and and toppled off the branch, only to hop up again and begin harassing other items. Sure enough, the cub soon fell, just as he knew it would._

 _However, the fallen cub never got up._

 _Wait...this isn't right.._

 _This isn't what happened!_

 _All of a sudden, the crowd was shouting, running to find staff, pushing forwards for a good view of the lion enclosure._

 _And all of a sudden, Tsuna's younger self was crying, and Tsuna discovered that maybe being invisible wasn't so good after all._

 _As he desperately tried to comfort his younger self, though his words and touch was nothing more than air, he desperately tried to think through what he had seen._

 _He had been reliving his memory, but the best part turned out to be the worst and, as if on cue to his thoughts, Tsuna suddenly got a huge headache and, as he clutched his head, darkness swirled around him and swallowed him whole._

* * *

"...Juudaime.."

* * *

 _Tsuna opened his eyes, and saw lines of white light shine right at his eyes; however, in his mindscape, everything was a dull color, and therefore so was the light. However, out of habit, Tsuna held up his hand to block out the light that neither there nor not there. Again, just like last time, Tsuna looked around and saw his younger self, this time only with his mother._

 _They were at the amusement part._

 _The scene was just as he remembered, his first time at the amusement park, when his father had first left, but Tsuna didn't know and so Nana had brought him to the amusement part to distract him. Now that Tsuna knew the truth behind their trip, he saw the whole thing in a new light, one that wasn't necessarily an improvement._

 _Like last time, Tsuna watched his younger self go on rides, buy small pieces of candy, and laugh. How he wished he were still young._

 _Maybe, if he were still young, his mother would have decided to spend more time with him_

 _Maybe, if he were still young, his father still might have cared about him._

 _Wait._

 _Stop._

 _Stop it._

 _Tsuna suddenly stopped in his path, surprised at his own thoughts. When did he start thinking that his mother didn't want to spend time with him? When did he start thinking that his father never cared for him? They still did, he thought to himself. They still loved him. For sure._

 _Tsuna shook his head, clearing it, and looked up, only to see that he had lost view of his younger self and mother._

 _Thinking back, Tsuna knew that his past self and mother would be at the ferris wheel, waiting in line, and so he ran towards the direction of the ferris wheel, the tallest ride in the park._

 _However, as Tsuna ran, he started thinking again. What if something like the other scene happened? What if his memory was different, was altered again?_

 _Then, right before his younger self came into view, Tsuna knew that it had happened again._

 _He saw his younger self, eyes watering with unshed tears, standing next to the gates of the ferries wheel while clutching a balloon, his mother nowhere to be seen._

 _They were supposed to have gone onto the ferris wheel._

 _They were supposed to have taken a picture together at the highest point, to have been laughing and talking throughout the entire trip._

 _As Tsuna stood, looking at his younger self crying, he suddenly felt his own pit of sadness start to sink into his heart._

 _Suddenly, his younger self looked up, and in a moment, it seemed as though there was nobody else at the park, and it seemed as though he and his heartbroken younger self had met his eyes._

 _And then he was swept by darkness again, this time with waves of emotion._

* * *

"...Tsuna…"

* * *

 _They were at the beach, the sun shining down. The usual bright rays of light seemed dull, and the crashes of the waves were loud. The people around were all enjoying themselves, some in the water, others in the sand, chatting happily._

 _Ah. He remembered. The trip with his mom and dad, the first after his father visited once again. After not coming home for a couple years. Tsuna had been angry at his father, but they went to the beach, and eventually made up. He watched as his younger self splashed about in the salty waves, shrieking with delight as his father splashed him. And he watched as his younger self buried his father's legs in the sand, his mother laughing along with him._

 _Now that Tsuna knew about the mafia, and the position his father held, he began to wonder. What was his father doing before he came to visit?_

 _Then, they, his mother, father, and him, had borrowed a boat, and rowed out further in the sea. A ghost of a smile made its way onto Tsuna's face, a smile that almost met his eyes. He remembered. They had rowed towards a slab of rock jutting out of the sea, a beautiful one with small pieces of moss and small flowers, once that (according to his boastful father) only their family knew about. He remembered. He remembered how they had rowed to the rock, and all three of them had tried to squeeze on to watch the sunset, only to have Tsuna's father slip into the shallow water with a surprised yelp when he was pushed off the rock, which had been growing smaller. Or had they been growing, too big, too fast? Tsuna followed his now barely younger self onto the boat, and, though he told himself, tried desperately to convince himself that nothing would change, he knew that eventually it would come. As they had, last time, the three of them got off the boat to view the sunset- Tsuna stood, knee-deep in cold water that he couldn't feel but wished he could, even if it would make him shiver with the low temperature- and, just like he remembered, the sunset was so beautiful that it temporarily made Tsuna forget everything. And when he turned around he was that his parents were rowing away, talking to themselves._

" _Aren't we so glad that Tsuna is gone?"_

" _Yes. We can finally get rid of that annoying hindrance."_

 _No. That wasn't what was supposed to happen! They were supposed to watch the beautiful sunset, and snuggled together. His mom was supposed to suddenly squeal with delight, after catching sight of dolphins leaping out._

 _Tsuna watched as his younger self stumble up, desperate to reach his parents again despite the harsh words, and splash into the water as he slipped and choked on his tears, which eventually left his blinking eyes and mingled with the water that slowly dripped off the ends of his hair._

 _Tsuna didn't even bother trying to comfort his younger self anymore. What was the use?_

 _And darkness consumed him again, this time his heart numb._

* * *

"...Bossu…"

* * *

 _It was Christmas, and everyone was there. At least, everyone that cared. And his father was coming too; that was the one present that Tsuna had looked most forward too. Tsuna watched his just slightly younger self attach small ornaments to the tree and arrange the presents perfectly, preparing to meet his father in the little time he could, and he had to make sure everything was perfect. He had started preparing for Christmas a month ago, ever since his mother had announced, a month ago, that his "dreamy" and "perfect" father was coming home. And so, determined to impress his father, Tsuna had immediately begun preparing, making backups for his backups; he knew that he needed them. After all, why else was had he been nicknamed "Dame-Tsuna"?_

 _He sat on the couch, watching his excited younger self, dreading for the moment that he knew would definitely come. The moment where a lie could be made real. Now that he thought back to his experience at the zoo, he couldn't quite remember the details, just like he could barely remember any of the good things from his amusement park trip except for the deep pit of loneliness that accompanied all his other core memories._

 _He heard the phone ring, and stood up immediately to answer it, only to remember that he couldn't touch anything in his abstract world, so he watched, impatient, as his younger self answered the phone. And watched as his younger self's face fell as he hung up the phone after a conversation that seemed too short to be one, and one that probably had a terrible ending."_

" _Mom...dad's not coming this year. Again."_

 _Tsuna turned away from his younger self and clenched his the darkness consumed him, the only thought he had was "I'm sorry, everybody. I'm sorry that I'm so useless."_

* * *

"...stupid omnivore…"

* * *

 _It was the first day of school school. Tsuna watched his younger self, nervous and jumpy,with no friends beside him, walk into the gym for the opening ceremony. This time, Tsuna was almost hesitant to follow his younger self into the gym, where he was_ supposed _to have been called on stage since his father had donated an amount of money to his school, a make-up present for missing all the Christmases that he had missed which was, in truth, all of them so far. Tsuna watched from the gym door as his younger self jumped where he had been sitting distractedly in his chair, lost in his thoughts. He watched as his younger self stumbled onstage, smiling his aloof little smile, a smile from a time where his happiness could still reach his eyes and make them shine. Tsuna turned away and began walking towards the front gates, but even though he was supposed to be out of range of any sound coming from the gym, he could still hear, clear as day, the loud thump of his younger self as he tripped on his shoelace and fell off the stage, bringing the microphone and school principal down with him as well. And he could hear the mocking laughter of the students, he could see his mother, signing a suspension form and hiding her disappointment with fake smiles, instead of the proud smile that he knew that she should have had when his younger self should have brought home a certificate, instead of that note._

 _Not that he cared anyways._

 _Tsuna stuffed his hands in his pockets and began walking away, though he knew the swallowing darkness would eventually come to him anyways._

 _I should stop caring._

 _This doesn't matter anyways_

 _I don't care_

 _I don't care._

 _Feel no emotion_

 _I don't care._

 _Learn to hide your emotions_

 _It's for the best._

 _Never trust anyone._

 _And the darkness enveloped him, this time from the inside out._

* * *

"...Tsunayoshi…"

* * *

 _It was his fourth birthday; he had a fever, and the party had been canceled._

 _It was his fifth birthday; he had fallen down the stairs, injuring himself, and so the party had ended in chaos._

 _It was his sixth birthday; he had spent it without his father, for the first time._

 _Stop it, Tsuna._

 _Think about something else._

 _It was his seventh birthday; he had been crying, since his father had not come again_

 _This isn't how it goes._

 _All my birthdays were happy times_

 _It was his eighth birthday; they had temporarily moved to a small apartment, so nobody had come._

 _Stop thinking about your birthdays Tsuna; keep your happy memories buried deep, so they won't get ruined. Stop thinking about all the good times._

 _It was his ninth birthday; though he had invited the entire class, nobody had come._

 _It was his eleventh birthday; he had locked himself in his room, refusing to come out ever since the bullies at school had given him his "birthday present"_

 _It was his thirteenth birthday; it was dinnertime, but nothing was set. He went to find his mother, only to see that she was sitting at her desk, back facing Tsuna. Tsuna left the room._

 _It was his fifteenth birthday; Tsuna had set the table by himself, and the only one there was his mother and him, the regular group. His mother had forgotten his birthday._

 _No...she remembered._

 _Stop thinking._

 _Don't think about your seventeenth birthday, Tsuna._

 _...my seventeenth birthday._

 _Had it come yet?_

 _Tsuna couldn't remember._

 _Was he seventeen? How old was he now? Sixteen or Seventeen?_

 _Tsuna couldn't remember._

 _And suddenly he was warm, and he saw, in small tints of color, his guardians, his friends._

 _And they said something that he would never forget. They added warmth to to his cold cocoon._

" _We haven't forgotten, Tsuna...Tsuna...Happy seventeenth birthday."_

* * *

Each of the guardians were gathered around Tsuna's bed, where he was unconscious from his now scheduled hourly dose of medicine, a strong medicine that kept him asleep, one that made him have a deep, dreamless sleep.

Or so they hoped.

And now, each of them had gathered around Tsuna's bed, each with a small present, they faces hopeful that just in like those fairy tales as long as they were optimistic and smiled to everyone despite their mood, their very important someone would wake up. And so, biting through their sadness, anger, and frustration, the guardians only spoke their good and hopeful wishes, though they knew, deep inside, that Tsuna wouldn't hear them anyways.

"We haven't forgotten, Tsuna...Tsuna...Happy seventeenth birthday."

* * *

 **Sabrina: YES! YES! FINALLY FUCKING FINISHED! I'm sorry if this was crap OTL but i spent like five hours on this since i procrastinated but i hope you liked it!**

 **Rachel: Yesss I hope you did~ HAPPY BIRTHDAY TSUNA! As you can see, its like kind of related to our story, but at the same time...not….**

 **Sabrina: THANK YOU FOR PUTTING UP WITH MY TERRIBLE SHIT I LOVE YOU ALL**

 **A/N**

 **Hope you guys enjoyed our random omake whatever unrelated kind of chapter!**

 **In case you guys don't really understand:**

 **Basically the guardians thought that Tsuna was in such a bad condition, and he was unconscious, and that he wouldn't be able to hear them. Even though they thought that, they still wished him happy birthday. However, though they don't know it, Tsuna can actually and did hear them wish him happy birthday.**

 **Some other quick explanations:**

 **basically, as part of one of the effects of the poison, all the happy memories that Tsuna thinks of will become mutilated and the happiest moments will turn into the worst ones,**

 **and the only way he can prevent that is to think about negative memories and thoughts so that, since they're already bad, they can't turn worse.**

 **We're sorry if this is kind of confusing, but if you have questions, please do PM us and ask!**

 **Also, some good news: Sabrina is no longer failing thus, we have begun progress in our next chapter again! We will try to have it up ASAP!**

 **Thanks, as usual!**

 **~Rachel and Sabrina**


	6. AN A Special Thank You XDXD

**Ok hi everyone, this is me, Rachel, speaking for both me and Sabrina because Sabrina is too lazy to write this with me so she just asked me to write for her as well:**

 **We just wanted to warn you guys that chances are we will not be posting again until February. I have a huge show coming up, and will be performing a lot throughout January, and unfortunately will not be having enough time to write another chapter.**

 **Yeah, originally we were going to post a new chapter for the last day of 2015...but we didn't finish (SORRY KEEP UR KNIVES TO URSELVES THANK YOU VERY MUCH)**

 **And we will not be posting on ever again for the year of 2015.**

 **It was a great year with all of you readers and we want to give you all of our thanks.**

 **So goodbye...see you next year...**

 **OK SORRY IT SOUNDED WAY TOO DEPRESSING**

 **Just wanted to say a special thank you to all of you who have read our story this year, and we really appreciate it! We are two kids here who really suck at writing, and it makes us so happy that you all stuck around and read this! So once again, thank you all very much! (Yeah from where we are, there is 18 more minutes until its officially 2016, so yeah...)**

 **Thank you all so very much! *bows***

 **See you all next year~!**

 **Ciao~**

 **-Rachel and Sabrina**


	7. First Step Forward

**Rachel: Hi. *wave of knives are tossed at her* IM SORRY WE WERE GONE FOR SO LONG I KNOW ITS APRIL YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW MANY TIMES WE SCREAMED AH ITS APRIL TO EACH OTHER AT SCHOOL IM SORRY WE PROCRASTINATED TO MUCH IM REALLY SORRY IM REA-**

 **Sabrina: *hiding behind Rachel to hide from the knives***

 **Rachel: *gets hit by a knife and dies (temporarily)***

 **Sabrina: Oh well. We don't own**

* * *

 **(Replies to Reviews):**

 **khr female (guest):** Rachel- Thanks you~! Glad you like it XDXD

Sabrina- Yay thank you!

 **R-Ace27:** Rachel- HHHAAAIII I want the happy ending too :)

Sabrina- WOW NO ONE IS ON MY SIDE (Rachel-haha too bad XP)

 **Sir Butt:** Rachel- Ok~ Thx for the advice and review!

Sabrina- Sad ending.

 **Naya (Guest):** Rachel- Hahaha sorry about that! Well I'm sure you can see us two are not the best writers in the world too haha… XP

Sabrina- Well sorry for being cliche…? (Rachel-WOW SABRINA STOP BEING RUDE I apologize okay we're terrible at writing sorry we'll try to fix that)

 **QuirkyKit:** Rachel- Yay! So happy you like it! I want the happy ending too so ^_^

Sabrina- Haha you enjoyed it! Dang, No one is on my side for the sad ending….

 **AdictaMoon:** Sabrina- DAMMIT oh thanks for the reply though

Rachel- Yup I agree HA SABRINA HAPPY ENDING :) Thx for the review too~

 **Guest:** Sabrina- ILOVEYOUILOVEYOUILOVEYOUILOVEYOUILOVEYOUILOVEYOUILOVEYOUILOVEYOU because yes a sad ending would totally fit right? Like this is ANGST, and TRAGEDY AND-

Rachel- Shut up Sabrina. Sorry about that. You see, I want the happy ending and she wants the sad ending sooo…. she was extremely excited when she saw that someone was on her side ^.^

 **Lovleydragonfly:** Rachel- YES THANK YOU FOR REVIEWING

Sabrina- thanks!

 **Azalealady:** Sabrina- haha our updates are getting slower oh my god

Rachel- (to Sabrina) ITS APRIL AAAAHHHH *both screaming* IM SORRY WE MEANT TO POST THIS FOREVER AGO BUT IT SEEMED TOO SHORT

 **Yona0:** Rachel- YES I AGREE

Sabrina- why is nobody on my side

 **Zurarose (guest):** Sabrina- OMG SUCH A LONG REVIEW THANK YOU

Rachel- same TYTY haha it was mostly Sabrina that wrote that omake XP

 **Pottedcactus (Guest):** Rachel- uh thanks for the multiple reviews! We'll try to fix that

Sabrina- wow three reviews on three different chapters

* * *

 **Warning: this is going to be one of the especially dark and sad chapters. again 3 -Sabrina**

 **(I TRIED TO STOP HER I SWEAR IM SORRY actually in reality i did half of this… oops… -Rachel)**

* * *

 _Last Time:_

 _Tsuna was rescued from the shitty Morte boss and was immediately brought home bloody and broken...in more ways than one. After he woke up, he started acting strangely, one moment numb and emotionless and then next violent and he even stabbed his father, Iemitsu, refusing any contact from anyone. And then, suddenly, Reborn comes in with news: they're going to….experiment...on Tsuna..?_

* * *

"We're going to experiment on Tsuna." Reborn stated, breaking the silence. At first, nobody moved at all. Then, slowly, Gokudera turned his head, as if he was mechanical and not quite human; he opened his mouth to speak. However, instead up simply speaking, he stood up abruptly, the sound of scraping chair legs and a breaking cup echoing through the quiet kitchen.

"WHAT? AFTER ALL HE'S BEEN THROUGH? YOU, AS WELL?"

He walked forward, his eyes blurred with anger, and grabbed the front of Iemitsu's jacket.

"AND _YOU!_ YOU AGREE TO THIS, AND STILL CLAIM TO BE HIS FATHER?"

Iemitsu stood there, head down; he did not protest. The other guardians simply stared, unable to move or process the speed of shocking events that were happening.

"REBORN! EXPLAIN YOUR DECISION TO THE TE-"

There was a sudden bang, and Gokudera reached his hand up to his face; there was a cut on his right cheek, where a bullet had narrowly skimmed past.

"Next time, Hayato, listen before you no, I couldn't care less if you're the precious Vongola guardian- from the ways things are going, Basil will be the next guardian and I think he'll think differently from Tsunayoshi. So sit down."

Gokudera cast another furious look at Reborn, but seemed to have decided to instead sit back down when he saw the unnerving look on the arcobaleno's face.

Reborn began to talk again, this time with a tinges of frost in his tone, as he paced the room, eye shadowed.

"We know nothing about the poison that Tsunayo-Tsuna had been administered to, and the place where the needle had been placed has already healed, so we can't get any direct traces of the poison. Also, earlier, we" -he gestured at Iemitsu, who still had that troubled look on his face- " received the results to Tsuna's health investigation on the plane. The poison detecting machine almost broke when it scanned Tsuna's body, the poison had been so strong. However, when they took a blood sample, not a single trace of the poison could be found, and the machine couldn't determine what type of poison it was either. Little do we know, Tsuna might die any second."

Another cup shattered, and each of the guardians, even Hibari, visibly tensed.

"So. There's no other way to do it. We'll experiment on Tsuna. Even if he dies, at least we may have gathered some evidence for future patients." He turned away, which was as good an apology as the guardians needed.

"Fine."

Every head turned, and each was more surprised than the next to see no other than Hibari, the only one of the guardians standing up.

* * *

 _It was swirling black, and all he could do was reach out his arms, as if blind, and try to find his way around the swirling darkness. However, there was no right or left, top or bottom, north or east. There was only the swirling darkness that made his head spin in dizzying circles. And then light shone. On his right, a meter away, was Hibari, standing with his tonfas out, intimidating expression just like how he had remembered it._

" _Come, Herbivore."_

 _Hibari was extremely dangerous, and potentially murderous at the most unpredictable times, but Tsuna knew that Hibari was safety._

 _However, a second later, there was another light, coming from another Hibari, a clone._

" _Don't listen to him, Herbivore._ _Do not be deceived by the lying fake." the new Hibari said._

" _No, the herbivore is lying to you."_

" _I do not have time to waste. Come, Sawada Tsunayoshi, unless you wish to die."_

" _Y-you came here for me, Hibari-san...s?"_

" _Of course not," the first Hibari said. "I don't have time to waste on a weak herbivore like you, but the baby ordered me to come," while the second Hibari simply looked to the side and make a 'tch' sound._

 _Both were inconveniently convincing._

 _And then there was light to his left, a meter away. It was the Morte Boss or, as Tsuna associated it with, Danger._

" _Come to me, Tsunayoshi. I'm the only one you can trust."_

 _Stop._

 _Don't listen to him, what are you doing._

 _Stop walking._

 _However, Tsuna, after glancing at the two Hibaris, now both with their tonfas out, took a step towards the Morte boss. And then another. And another._

 _Stop._

 _Tsuna tried to stop, tried to keep his mind from directing him towards the Morte boss. However, even as his strained his mind to breaking point trying to stop himself, his legs still kept on taking steady steps towards the Morte boss until he was just centimeters away from him._

" _Tsuna, stop!"_

 _Horrified, Tsuna turned his head to see both Hibaris starting towards him, and suddenly felt sudden pain._

 _His mind could not comprehend where the small, bloodied knife buried in his stomach had come from._

 _Hibari smirked._

* * *

Everyone was frozen until, like always, Gokudera stepped up.

"You complete bastard, is the only time you want to help when you get to torture the tenth?!"

Reborn gave off a half sigh, before saying "thank you Hibari; i knew i could depend on you."

Hibari looked away from glaring at Gokudera before looking down at Reborn disdainfully and retorting "but only if you promise to fight with me later."

Reborn seemed to smile a bit as his face was shadowed by his hat, but when he looked up again his face was serious as he said, "we need more people for this. And no,"-he looked at Gokudera-"I can't promise his safety."

Everyone tensed visibly, and everyone remained silent until Mukuro stood up, his normal relaxed smile placed loosely on his face. "I'll help." After a second, Chrome also stood up, glancing nervously between each of the guardians. "I-I'll help too...if i can…i guess.."

After a few more tense seconds, Yamamoto also stood up with a sigh, scratching the back of his head. "I suppose..this is better than just leaving Tsuna…" By now, the only one sitting tensely and with a more pained than angry expression was Gokudera, who was defiantly glaring down a his own lap, fists clenched tightly on his laps.

"I…."

"You're particularly essential to these experiments, Gokudera."

Everyone looked at Reborn who had walked in front of the rather stricken guardian.

"Like i said- you're very essential to these experiments, Gokudera. After all, you are the Tenth's right hand man, aren't you?"

* * *

"First test- recognition and trust." Everyone was sitting on the couch, and Reborn was pacing in front of them, holding a clipboard and pencil.

"Even though Tsuna panicked when he was first here, with the very little information that we already have we can assume that Tsuna only panics when brought to a new environment. So now, we'll send various people inside and see how Tsuna reacts to each of them."

* * *

 _It was cold, unbearably cold, as rain fell down seemingly endlessly from the dark clouds. The icy yet drops fell on Tsuna's matted hair, and slowly slid down his face, like the tears he wanted so badly to release from his eyes. Tsuna was standing outside his house, staring into the lively living room lit with a small fire through the backyard's glass sliding door. It cast a warm glow on the faces of the guardians, who were gathered around the kitchen table, chattering merrily, their hands warmed by the steaming cups of tea and hot chocolate. While he stood, out in the pouring, cold rain, his hands and face numb and teeth chattering from the cold. While he stood outside, alone._

 _And Tsunayoshi could only watch as the fire's light radiated among the happy group, its fingers of warmth pulling them close. And he stood, outside where the coldness seeped through clothes, chilling him to the bone, away from the fire that seemed close, but out of his grasp. He stared hungrily through the glass door filled with droplets of rain rushing down, as Hibari gave a rare flicker of a smile and the other guardians nearly fell out of their chairs, laughing. Tsuna felt like he was being observed, as a predator would to a prey, but every time he turned around nobody was there and when he faced the guardians once again he would get that same eerie feeling of being watched._

 _He stared through the glass, hand reaching out longingly for them, only to be stopped by the cold glass door. His body numbing. And his heart slowly freezing._

 _And as Tsuna's hand slipped back down, dropping limply back to his side, Yamamoto turned and caught his eye. He smiled and beckoned at Tsuna before turning back to the other guardians once again._

 _His heart lifting slightly, he stumbled forward, fumbling to open the door with his numb fingers. A small flicker of light had appeared in his dull eyes, as he finally managed to shove the door open. As it opened, he could feel the rush of the warm heat embrace him, and the sounds of laughter reached his ears. He could smell sweet scent of hot chocolate and tea, and his guardians were right in front of him. Tsuna tripped, but quickly scrambled back up, eager to join the others and the warm fire. However, the moment he stepped through the door and looked up, the guardians immediately faded away, along with the warm fire and his persistent smile._

 _So Tsuna stood there, the lingering scent of the warm drinks, the tenderness of the small fire, and the images of his friends slowly fading away. And so he turned and left. Slowly trudged out the now cold house, back into the rain, back to the cold, back to the loneliness. Because he knew, that the moment that door closed behind him, the moment he left, they would be back. And so they were. As Tsuna turned back to peer in through the windows once again, they were there. As if they had never left in the first place. And so he waited, outside, the water dripping down. And waited, waited with the slimmest hope that one again one of the guardians would beckon for him to go over, or come to open the door and welcome him in, but no matter how long he waiting, and even as he was soaked and feel the cold in his bones, nobody spared him a single glance again._

 _So Tsunayoshi lowered his head, turned, and walked away. He didn't know whether he was crying; his heart seemed beyond tears, yet the drops of water that dripped down his face were warm and salty, comforting compared to the icy droplets from the dark clouds._

 _In the gateway of his house, he stopped, his hand resting on the gate, but kept himself from looking back. There was nothing for him back there, after all._

 _And so, before he could change his mind, Tsuna walked away, never looking back even once. Just like the small, happy group inside his house had._

 _And he left, left with the tears from a crying sky._

* * *

Gokudera hesitantly opened the door to where his boss was. The brunette was huddling in a corner, curled up as if trying to shield himself from the unseen dangers.

Gokudera took a step forward

"...Tenth…?" he hesitantly called. Tsuna shot up, glancing wearily at him.

And he took another step.

Tsuna tensed.

"...Tenth. I-it's me. Remember? Gokudera Hayato."

Put his right foot in front of his left. Step.

"I-I'm not gonna hurt you or anything...ok…?"

Left in front of right. Step.

Tsuna backed further into the corner.

Gokudera froze.

"Do you remember? We used to spend all day together. We went to school, we went to your house, we...we…"

Step.

"...We spent all that time together…" he finished in a whisper. The brunette in front of him merely continued staring at him with the same, broken, defeated look.

Step.

He was right in front of him now. The silverette knelt down slowly and began reaching a hesitant hand towards his friend.

Tsuna flinched, and Gokudera mirrored his action, withdrawing his hand slightly as well.

"T-Tenth. I'm not gonna hurt you, I swear. So please… please…" he shut his eyes and his hand dropped. Sinking to the ground, trying furiously to fight back the tears, he mumbled once again. "... _please…_ "

And a hand lightly brushed against his hand. Gokudera's eyes shot open, and he saw, even if just for a moment, the same tenth that he followed, the same tenth that smiled at him, the same one that saved his life, gave him a meaning, helped him move on. The same tenth that gave him a reason to live. Tsuna's fingertips hesitantly touched the other's larger ones, though nearly instantly withdrew.

But it was fine.

For Gokudera, just that was enough.

* * *

 _Why was it so dark? So dark, miserable, cold, lonely. Lonely._

 _Yes, it was lonely. Where was everyone?_

 _Tsuna found himself walking, slowly moving somewhere, even if he could see absolutely nothing in this void of darkness. See nothing but the blackness that surrounded him. Hear nothing but the the echoes of his footsteps._

 _But that wasn't all. Somewhere in the darkness there was someone there. Someone sobbing. Tsuna could hear the sniffles and hiccups, obviously attempted to have been quieted, but they were there. He could hear it. And without thinking, he turned and ran, ran and ran and ran towards the sound._

 _And there it was. Somewhere far in the distance, with silver hair. It was blurry, and no matter what he did, Tsuna couldn't approach him. The boy continued crying._

" _Please"_

 _The voice echoed back and forth, back and forth, and somehow, Tsuna could tell that it was the boy's voice. The voice of the crying boy._

' _I have to help him.'_

 _And even if he had no idea who the crying boy was and what the tears slipping down his face were for, he felt protectiveness. He wanted to hurry to his side and comfort him, to tell him that it was ok, that he shouldn't cry._

 _But who was that?_

 _The instant he thought that, a single name echoed throughout his mind._

' _Hayato.'_

 _And though Tsunayoshi couldn't remember who that was no matter how familiar, he couldn't help but reach out to the crying boy._

* * *

 **One Week Later**

Tsuna had finally begun to calm down, gradually coming to trust his loyal companions once more. Every once in awhile, the guardians would wake up to his bloodcurdling scream, or witness his violent panic attacks. But even then, they followed him and tried their best to help him, through any condition.

And they vowed, that they would never let their sky be taken away and broken again.

If only it were that simple.

* * *

"I think I want to try letting Tsuna go to school soon." Reborn confessed quietly, quite uncharacteristically. "I want to see how he would react to his peers."

Behind him, the said brunette was staring out the window, peering into the dark sky.

* * *

 _To be continued…_

* * *

 **Rachel: (yes I can back from the dead)OKAY IM REALLY SORRY THAT THIS CHAPTER WAS LIKE**

 **Sabrina: way shorter than any of the others**

 **Rachel: yeah BUT WE DIDN'T KNOW WHERE TO CUT IT SO HAHAha...ha...ha...**

 **Sabrina: anyway we're sorry about the late chapter (and short) but please leave a review on your way out**

 **Rachel: OH MY GOD ASUMA KOUSUKE-KUN PLEASE MARRY ME**

 **Sabrina: (sorry she's obsessing over the actor of Oikawa Tooru and obsessed with Trashikawa and… well… I'm trying not to because I'll be crying when he gets a girlfriend)**

 **Rachel: HEY I MEAN HES 19 YEARS OLD** _ **HES SO CUTE**_ **OKAY LIKE OKAY HEY I JUST REALIZED SABRINA UR SO LUCKY** _ **HES SO CUTE**_ **UR BORN IN THE SAME** _ **MONTH**_ **AS HIM HIS BIRTHDAY IS OCTOBER 20TH** _ **HES SO CUTE**_ **AND HE HAS BEEN PLAYING VOLLEYBALL AND BASEBALL SINCE HIGH SCHOOL AND-**

 **Sabrina: ANYWAY bye and please leave a review on your way out!**

 **Ciao~**

 **Rachel and Sabrina**


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